The current chief of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) acknowledged that President Joe Biden could’ve done more to support his agency and secure the southern border.
Patrick Lechleitner, who became acting ICE director in July 2023 and will be leaving once President-elect Donald Trump returns to power, expressed deep frustration with the outgoing administration’s slow pace to stem illegal immigration into the country, according to an exit interview he gave with NBC News. The comments follow criticism from other top immigration officials who served under Biden, such as retired Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott, who have also accused the administration of ineptitude in its handling of the crisis.
“It’s unfortunate because I think we could have done more,” Lechleitner said to NBC News.
“We could have put more resources to it, either at [Customs and Border Protection], for the border itself, and with ICE,” he continued. “And we could have went and tried to get more of these individuals in the non-detained docket.”
Biden entered office and immediately began rolling back the enforcement apparatus that was put into place by the first Trump administration. In the first year of his presidency, he took 296 executive actions on immigration — with 89 specifically reversing or beginning the process of undoing policies undertaken by the Trump administration.
Lechleitner’s criticism largely revolved around the slow pace at which Biden finally decided to use an executive order in 2024 to help tighten the U.S.-Mexico border. Following months of insistence that there was nothing he could do to stem the flow of massive illegal immigration into the country without congressional involvement, Biden rolled out an executive order in June that, over the course of the year, led to a reduced number of migrant encounters.
The outgoing ICE director told NBC News that Biden could’ve “absolutely” taken action sooner.
“I think the career people in [the Department of Homeland Security] would have liked that,” he stated. “And all of us in DHS, quite frankly, I don’t know if anybody in DHS wouldn’t have wanted that earlier.”
“We could have detained more people, and we could have removed more people,” the ICE chief continued. “And I think we could use more resources and support. We could have done that in the last four years.”
Lechleitner also accused the Biden White House of not being completely transparent with the American public about the extent of the border crisis. The outgoing ICE chief said top administration officials went so far as stopping his agency from conducting monthly press conferences that had already been announced.
“They should [have] allowed us more opportunity to explain what we’re doing and explain the hard work that ICE is doing and CBP is doing,” he said to NBC News. “Let us talk. Let us demystify. Because if not, people are going to just make their own stories up about what’s going on, and it’s going to be more problematic.”
Lechleitner’s comments about the Biden White House shutting down transparency on the border crisis largely reflected what Scott, who served as Border Patrol chief during the first few months of the Biden administration, previously told the Daily Caller News Foundation. Scott said administration officials went through great lengths to hide the crisis from the public, having “a gag order put on us literally within minutes” Biden was sworn into office.
Trump will be sworn into office on Jan. 20 as the 47th president. He has tapped former ICE chief Tom Homan to serve as border czar, a role that will have him overseeing the president-elect’s sweeping deportation operation across the country.
Trump has also nominated South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem to lead the Department of Homeland Security, Caleb Vitello has been chosen to lead ICE and Scott has been tapped to lead Customs and Border Protection.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the DCNF.
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