Rep. Roy leads colleagues in fight for transparency on ICE data

WASHINGTON—On Thursday, Rep. Chip Roy (TX-21) led 19 of his House colleagues in formally calling on Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to provide full data on Immigration and Customs Enforcement's activities in fiscal year 2021.

The recently-released FY2021 report provides limited information on ICE's enforcement and removal operations, and also fails to provide data metrics that can be compared against previous years.

"The concerning decision to release a less than seven-page summary in lieu of an enforcement report begs the question as to what the Biden Administration is hiding from Congress and the American people," the legislators told Mayorkas in a letter sent Thursday. "We ask that you immediately release a report containing ERO enforcement data for FY21 in a comparable format to the FY20 enforcement report."

Cosigners include Reps. Mary Miller (IL-15), Louie Gohmert (TX-01), Ted Budd (NC-13), Ralph Norman (SC-05), Michael Cloud (TX-27), Greg Steube (FL-17), Mo Brooks (AL-05), Andy Biggs (AZ-05), Ben Cline (VA-06), Andrew Clyde (GA-09), Lauren Boebert (CO-03), Matt Gaetz (FL-01), Dan Bishop (NC-09), Brian Babin (TX-36), Adrian Smith (NE-03), Matthew Rosendale (MT-AL), Rodney Davis (IL-13), Tom Rice (SC-07), Diana Harshbarger (TN-01).

They also criticized DHS's dismal overall record and lack of transparency under Mayorkas' leadership.

"In FY21, DHS saw more illegal migrants cross the southern border than any other year in DHS history, arguably creating a larger toll on DHS and the American people than at any point in history," Rep. Roy's letter concludes. "Your department has shown to be unfazed by this reality and the lack of transparency from DHS during your time as Secretary has not gone unnoticed."

Full text of the letter is available here and below.

April 14, 2022

The Honorable Alejandro Mayorkas

Secretary

U.S. Department of Homeland Security

Washington, DC 20528

Dear Secretary Mayorkas,

As you know, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) released the congressionally required fiscal year 2021 report on March 11, 2022 — over five months after the end of fiscal year 2021. While we appreciate finally receiving the ICE report, it provides only a limited amount of information regarding ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) division. As such, the report has shown to be wholly inadequate for the purpose of comparing annual data to prior years. More precisely, the report ICE recently published does not include the many data tables and specific enforcement statistics that were provided by the past Administration in the “U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Fiscal Year 2020 Enforcement and Removal Operations Report.” Instead, the recently-released annual report is likened to a narrative driven summary of the agency’s many focuses and missions in FY21, and does not include more granular data that allows for a more precise analysis of ICE’s immigration enforcement activities in FY21.

The concerning decision to release a less than seven-page summary in lieu of an enforcement report begs the question as to what the Biden Administration is hiding from Congress and the American people. For this reason, we ask that you immediately release a report containing ERO enforcement data for FY21 in a comparable format to the FY20 enforcement report. This report must contain all figures, tables, charts, and data found in EROs FY20 enforcement report, including, but not limited to:

1) FY2019 – FY2021 ICE Initial Book-Ins by Arresting Agency (Figure 1)

2) FY2019 – FY2021 ICE Initial Book-Ins by Arresting Agency and Month (Figure 2)

3) FY2019 – FY2021 Average Daily Population by Arresting Agency (Figure 3)

4) FY2020 – FY2021 Average Daily Population by Arresting Agency and Month (Figure 4)

5) FY2019 – FY2021 ERO Administrative Arrests by Criminality (Figure 9)

6) FY21 Enforcement & Removal Operations (ERO) Administrative Arrests by Month (Figure 10)

7) FY21 Criminal Charges and Convictions for ERO Administrative Arrests (Table 1)

8) FY21 ICE Removals by Arresting Agency (Figure 15)

9) FY21 ICE Removals by Arresting Agency and Month (Figure 16)

10) FY21 ICE ERO Detainers Issued (Figure 13)

In FY21, DHS saw more illegal migrants cross the southern border than any other year in DHS history, arguably creating a larger toll on DHS and the American people than at any point in history.

Your department has shown to be unfazed by this reality and the lack of transparency from DHS during your time as Secretary has not gone unnoticed. We urge you to help correct this in part by issuing the requested data no later than April 28, 2022.

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