President Joe Biden’s unprecedented failure to release a report on the number of illegal immigrants deported in 2021 prompted outrage from congressional Republicans who accused the White House of trying to cover up the crisis on the southern border.
The Washington Free Beacon reported Wednesday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement failed to release the annual report by the end of the calendar year for the first time since 2011. It is unclear if the tardy ICE report has been completed; an ICE spokeswoman told the Free Beacon that the agency’s plans to publish the late report are up in the air.
Rep. Ronny Jackson (R., Texas) told the Free Beacon that the Biden administration’s decision to "ignore their responsibility to publish the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Annual Report" is "shameful." Jackson added that Biden’s "open border agenda has caused and exacerbated the worst border crisis we’ve ever seen and Biden is doing everything he can to cover it up."
Jackson said the move to not release the report "is nothing more than a calculated attempt to minimize transparency and cover up their wrongdoings," referring to GOP criticism over the Biden administration's reversals of Trump-era policies such as "Remain in Mexico" and Title 42, a pandemic-related law that allowed for rapid deportations of illegal immigrants and asylum seekers. Many immigration hawks, such as Jackson, suspect that the 2021 report shows a decrease in deportations from ICE compared to previous years.
The lack of transparency from the Biden administration on the topic of illegal immigration comes after a year that saw an unprecedented surge of crossings all along the southern border. The administration also delayed issuing, then backdated, a Department of Homeland Security report on the illegal immigrant population, the Free Beacon reported earlier this week.
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