A newly highlighted federal Inspector General report is raising serious questions about immigration enforcement during the Biden administration, with figures suggesting that thousands of potentially significant cases never received the attention Americans would reasonably expect.
The findings place former Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas under renewed scrutiny over the policies governing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). At the center of the controversy is a staggering disparity between the number of individuals flagged for possible security or public safety concerns and the number of cases investigators actually pursued.
According to the figures provided in the report, ICE received more than 3.1 million leads involving visa overstays between 2021 and 2024. Approximately 104,000 of those cases involved individuals identified as potential national security or public safety threats.
Yet fewer than 500 of those flagged cases were investigated, and just eight people were arrested.
