Quote:NEW: A new DHS Inspector General report finds the Biden administration took almost no enforcement action against visa overstays, including public safety threats, and arrested only a handful out of millions. The numbers are stunning. From FY21-FY24:

- ICE received over 3.1 million visa overstay leads, roughly 104,000 of which had public safety or national security concerns. But that resulted in only 496 investigations by ICE (2%) and ONLY EIGHT ARRESTS.

- A September 2021 Mayorkas policy memo directed ICE to target only illegal immigrants considered “Priority 1 leads” (highest threat to public safety). Out of 1,769 viable Priority 1 visa overstay leads, ICE only conducted 84 investigations (5%), resulting in ONLY 2 ARRESTS.

- The majority of the more than 3 million visa overstay leads were deemed “non-priority”. 2.8 million of these “non-priority” leads were sent to ICE for investigation, leading to just 5 investigations and ONLY TWO ARRESTS. (out of 2.8 million!)

Another shocking piece of the report, visa overstays tracked by CBP exploded by 364% during Biden’s first full year in office (Fiscal Year 2022).

CBP tracked visa overstays in FY2021: 171,269
CBP tracked visa overstays in FY2022: 795,167

THE DHS IG concluded the 2021 Mayorkas memo is largely behind the lack of enforcement.

“ICE conducted few nonimmigrant overstay lead-initiated investigations and arrested even fewer foreign nationals who stayed beyond or violated the terms of their admission because of the September 2021 policy that directed ICE’s limited resources only to leads posing a threat to national security, public safety, and border security. When ICE did attempt to pursue action on a lead, it encountered challenges verifying addresses and locating the foreign nationals present in the United States. Further, ICE did not have sufficient resources to pursue all overstay leads.”