Biden's ICE Couldn't Locate Most High-Risk Visa Overstay Targets—Watchdog
A directive from the former Secretary of Homeland Security and missing address information were key issues for ICE.
As immigration numbers surged at the U.S.-Mexico border and through airports, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) struggled to locate most of its most high-risk visa overstay targets, according to a new report released Thursday. Out of nearly 105,000 potential threats known as Priority 1 overstays, ICE only arrested eight individuals between 2021 and late 2024.
The Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General (OIG) reported that ICE received 3,145,375 visa overstay leads during the same period but prioritized only 3 percent as potential national security or public safety threats. This occurred due to a directive from then-SECDEF Alejandro Mayorkas, instructing ICE to focus solely on Priority 1 individuals.
The report highlights challenges in verifying addresses and locating foreign nationals, as well as resource limitations faced by ICE.
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