DHS Watchdog Says Biden-Era ICE Took Limited Action on More Than 3 Million Visa-Overstay Leads

By yourNEWS Media Newsroom.

WASHINGTON — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement took limited enforcement action on more than 3.1 million potential visa-overstay leads received during the Biden administration, including tens of thousands involving possible national-security or public-safety concerns, according to a new Department of Homeland Security inspector general report.

The DHS Office of Inspector General report, issued Sept. 29, examined how ICE handled nonimmigrant-overstay leads from fiscal 2021 through fiscal 2024.

During that period, ICE received 3,145,375 leads involving foreign nationals who potentially remained in the United States beyond the terms of their lawful admission.

Of those, 104,049 — about 3.3% — were categorized as potential national-security or public-safety concerns.

ICE ultimately opened 496 investigations involving that group and made eight arrests connected to the lead-driven investigations, according to the watchdog.

The remaining 3,041,326 leads, or approximately 96.7%, were classified as non-priority under the enforcement framework in effect during much of the Biden administration.

The inspector general attributed the limited enforcement activity to a combination of Biden-era immigration priorities, inadequate address information, difficulties locating foreign nationals and insufficient ICE resources.

“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,” the report states.

“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,” the report continued. “Further, ICE did not have sufficient resources to pursue all overstay leads.”

The September 2021 policy was issued under then-Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and established guidelines for immigration enforcement during President Joe Biden’s administration.

Rather than treating every removable foreign national as an equal enforcement priority, the policy directed ICE personnel to concentrate resources on people considered threats to national security, public safety or border security.

That meant most visa-overstay leads were not prioritized for investigation solely because a person had remained in the country beyond an authorized period.

Among the more than 104,000 leads initially flagged for potential national-security or public-safety concerns, ICE determined that 21,895 were viable for further investigation.

A substantially smaller subset met the agency’s Priority 1 criteria.

The inspector general found 1,769 viable Priority 1 leads during the review period.

ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations opened investigations into 84 of those cases and made two arrests.

The report also found that Enforcement and Removal Operations received approximately 2.84 million non-priority overstay leads. ERO investigated five after determining they nevertheless presented potential public-safety concerns and made two arrests.

The watchdog cautioned that its figures cover arrests resulting specifically from the overstay-lead process it reviewed.

ICE also arrested visa overstayers through other enforcement activities during the same period, meaning the eight arrests identified in the report do not represent every overstay arrest made nationwide from fiscal 2021 through 2024.

DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin sharply criticized the previous administration following release of the findings.

“The degree of the Biden administration’s dereliction of duty, which needlessly put American lives at risk, is staggering and enraging,” Mullin said.

“As if the wide-open borders weren’t enough, a new OIG report reveals that the Biden-era ICE failed to act on more than 3 million leads about possible alien overstays, with more than 100,000 of these being labeled as potential national security threats,” he said.

The inspector general’s terminology is somewhat broader than Mullin’s description. The approximately 104,000 cases were categorized as potential national-security or public-safety concerns, and a lead did not necessarily establish that the individual had committed a crime or posed a confirmed threat.

Mullin said the Trump administration has adopted a fundamentally different enforcement approach.

“Unlike the Biden administration, the Trump administration will always put the safety of the American people first,” he said. “We will target and remove as many illegal aliens as possible to make America safe again.”

Visa overstays involve foreign nationals who generally entered the United States legally but remained after their authorized period expired or otherwise violated the conditions under which they were admitted.

They differ from illegal border crossings because the initial entry itself may have been lawful.

The scale of the problem remains substantial.

The latest DHS Entry/Exit Overstay Report found 538,548 overstay events among approximately 46.7 million covered nonimmigrant admissions expected to depart through air or sea during fiscal 2024.

Of those, 482,954 were initially classified as suspected in-country overstays because DHS had no evidence the individuals had departed, extended their authorized stay or changed to another lawful immigration status by the end of the fiscal year.

Subsequent departures and status adjustments reduced that figure to 427,204 by Feb. 6, 2025.

The fiscal 2024 figures illustrate another important distinction in overstay statistics: a person initially identified as a suspected overstay may subsequently depart the United States or obtain another lawful status.

The inspector general’s findings nevertheless raise questions about what happened when ICE received information concerning people who appeared to have remained illegally and, in some cases, had been flagged for additional security or public-safety concerns.

One of the principal problems was finding them.

The watchdog said ICE frequently lacked current, verified addresses for individuals referred to the agency.

In one example cited in reporting on the audit, ICE had 205 Priority 1 overstay targets at the end of fiscal 2024 but could not refer 194 of them for further action because sufficient address information was unavailable.

Problems tracking nonimmigrants after admission have been identified by DHS oversight officials before.

The inspector general previously found weaknesses in the government’s ability to obtain and maintain reliable addresses for foreign visitors, reducing ICE’s ability to locate people after authorities determine they may have overstayed.

The new report also found that staffing and workload affected enforcement.

ICE officials told investigators that the agency did not have enough personnel to pursue every overstay lead it received.

The 2021 enforcement policy therefore became particularly significant because it determined which cases would receive scarce investigative resources.

Mayorkas defended priority-based immigration enforcement throughout the Biden administration, arguing that no administration has sufficient personnel to apprehend every person who may be removable and that resources should therefore be concentrated on national-security threats, dangerous criminals and recent border crossers.

Critics argued that the policy effectively insulated large numbers of people living illegally in the United States from enforcement unless they committed additional offenses or otherwise attracted federal attention.

The inspector general’s new findings provide detailed numbers showing how that approach affected visa-overstay investigations.

ICE concurred with the watchdog’s recommendation that the agency develop and implement a plan to increase investigations and enforcement actions involving Priority 1 overstays.

The inspector general said the recommendation remains open, with ICE targeting Sept. 30, 2027, for completion.

The agency also noted that the period examined by the audit largely predates the Trump administration’s current immigration-enforcement priorities.

Since returning to office, Trump has directed DHS and ICE to broaden interior enforcement and pursue removable foreign nationals beyond the narrower categories established under Biden.

The administration has also increased scrutiny of visa holders and other temporary foreign visitors.

The inspector general did not characterize every one of the 3.1 million leads as a confirmed illegal alien or national-security threat.

Instead, the audit found that ICE received millions of possible overstay referrals, prioritized a relatively small portion for investigation and encountered serious obstacles even when it attempted to locate some of the highest-priority individuals.

For current DHS leadership, the numbers demonstrate what officials describe as a major enforcement failure under the previous administration.

For the inspector general, the operational conclusion was more specific: ICE needs a better system for locating, investigating and taking appropriate enforcement action against high-priority foreign nationals who remain in the United States after their authorized stay has ended.