‘This Is Not Working’: Ex-ICE Chief Of Staff Blasts Scope Of Trump’s Immigration Crackdown

A former top U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official is slamming the Trump administration’s use of the agency.

“This is not working for our communities, it’s not working for our economy and it’s not working for our national security and public safety,” Jason Houser, ICE chief of staff under President Joe Biden, told MS NOW’s Nicolle Wallace on Tuesday.

As protests against ICE’s actions continue in Minneapolis and nationwide, attorneys representing those detained have also accused the Department of Homeland Security of denying people their right to legal counsel.

A majority of Americans (52%) have indicated that ICE is making communities “less safe,” a recent CBS News/YouGov poll found.

“So Americans are beginning to see, as the polling you showed [indicates], we’re less safe,” Houser said.

Houser, who has previously ripped the administration for trying to “drive a narrative” that migrants seeking legal protection were here to harm Americans, told Wallace that had talked to “dozens, if not hundreds” of state and local law enforcement as well as his old colleagues at ICE who told him that no one sees how the administration’s approach to the agency is in the interest of public safety.

Houser noted that while there had been “systemic failures” across multiple administrations, the Trump administration’s “political opportunism,” “quota-arrest targets,” and violent crackdown in U.S. cities had stoked fear among asylum seekers.

Houser suggested that in trying to meet arrest quotas initially set forth by top Trump White House adviser Stephen Miller, ICE had been redirected from the department’s historic focus on tackling drug crimes and human trafficking.

“There’s been a de-prioritization of that,” Houser said.

H/T: Mediaite