According to ICE Assistant Secretary John Morton, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency “definitively do[es] not set quotas.”
Mr. Morton’s statement is difficult to reconcile with recently uncovered ICE documents that clearly indicate that ICE has set goals for the number of removals it will reach this year. In fact, the subject line in an uncovered email is “removal goals.” The ICE documents show that immigration officials will be ranked (from unacceptable to excellent) based upon the number of removal actions they complete monthly. Such a ranking is clearly arbitrary when no consideration is taken into the complexity that might exist in each removal case.
Mr. Morton, in response to the leaked memos stated that they were issued without his authorization and do not represent ICE’s policies. Is Mr. Morton unsure what the term “quota” means? Is he just trying to sweep the incident underneath the rug as fast as possible? Or is he just that out of touch with the actual daily activities of his agency? Is he unable to admit a mistake?
Is there another explanation for his comments?
Congratulations to the Washington Post for breaking the story.