In an interview with NBC News conducted Wednesday and published Thursday, P.J. Rechleitner, the deputy director and senior official who performs the duties of ICE director, said President Joe Biden “requires executive actions taken at the border to be effective.” He said he should have taken it “absolutely.” Faster.
NBC News Homeland Security Correspondent Julia Ainslie said, “We've seen millions of immigrants coming across the border, and I know you're not paying attention to the border, but the impact…'' …A lot of that has gone down, and especially since June, when the new executive actions went into effect, the numbers have gone down dramatically. Do you think Biden should have taken that action sooner?”
Lechleitner replied: “Yes, absolutely, yes, they should have done that. The government should have taken that step sooner, and frankly, the career people at DHS, and all of us at DHS, would like to see that happen.” I think it was DHS. I don't know if anyone didn't want it sooner. Maybe there are counselors here and there who don't like this kind of thing, but law enforcement always asks for tighter controls. We'll be on the side because, as I remember, when we were there, for a while, it was over 10,000 people.
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