Acting Director of ICE: "Congress absolutely failed" to stem the border crisis

The choice of President Donald Trump to head the immigration and customs services criticized lawmakers on Tuesday for failing to change laws to discourage migrants from going on an excursion to the United States.

Addressing reporters at ICE headquarters, Acting Director Mark Morgan urged Congress to rework laws to allow families to stay in detention longer and allow expulsion quickly unaccompanied minors.

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"The Congress has absolutely failed in this area," Morgan said at a round table with other top officials from the ICE. "It's unbearable and nobody should want that."

Morgan also urged lawmakers to approve an additional $ 4.5 billion request that would strengthen the capacity of families and children, as well as increase the number of single adult detention beds. The administration has asked for funds to deal with what it describes as an unprecedented crisis at the Southwest border.

Morgan has arrived at ICE as part of a broader reform of the US Department of Homeland Security in recent months. The White House has dropped its previous candidate for the role, Ronald Vitiello, in April. Trump had then declared that he would go in a "more difficult direction" with the ICE candidate.

However, Trump's decision to call Morgan was a surprise. Morgan had previously held the position of border patrol leader under the Obama administration, but was expelled just days later as Trump's president. In recent months he has reinforced his immigration credentials by making inflammatory comments about undocumented immigrants on Fox News.

For example, in an appearance in "Tucker Carlson Tonight" in January, Morgan said, "I went to detention centers where I approached these so-called underage people, aged 17 and under, and I I looked at Tucker – and I said it was a future MS-13 gang member – it's unequivocal. "

During his hour-long meeting with reporters on Tuesday morning, Morgan accused the Mexican government of failing to stem the flow of migrants from Central America.

"It's time for them to withdraw and join us on the ground," he said.

Mexico's criticism follows Trump's request last week that the Mexican government step up control of immigration. The president has promised to set a 5% tariff on Mexican products by Monday if the situation does not change and gradually raise the tariff to 25% by October.

Morgan said the Trump government continued to seek a "safe third country" asylum agreement with Mexico, despite resistance from the current government of Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Under such an agreement, migrants would be forced to seek asylum in Mexico as they traveled through that country to the United States.

"I know for a fact that they insisted that Mexico sign this safe third country [deal], Said Morgan Tuesday. "The international norm is that when you leave a country, you ask for asylum in the first country you go to."

Senior Mexican officials traveled to Washington this week to negotiate an agreement that would avoid tariffs, but a safe third country agreement does not seem to be under discussion. Monday, at a press conference at the Mexican Embassy, ​​the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Marcelo Ebrard rejected the idea that his government would accept an asylum pact.

On Tuesday, during the question and answer session, Morgan said his agency would enforce immigration laws for all offenders, including families.

"We do not exempt anyone," Morgan said. "I do not think you want the director of ICE to exempt a demographic group that violates our immigration laws because of my own political, personal or moral ideology."

He also answered questions about the Trump administration's commitment to targeting employers who hire undocumented immigrants. A report released last week by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse of Syracuse University revealed that only 11 people had been charged with knowingly hiring undocumented workers during a period of one year. beginning in April 2018.

Morgan said the federal law limited opportunities to sue businesses.

"I'm not looking for excuses, but suing an employer is very difficult," he said.