ICE deputy director defends top official’s meeting with ‘Abolish Borders’ activist

A Biden administration Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official defended the agency’s decision to meet with an anti-border immigration activist.

ICE Chief of Staff Michael Lumpkin met on Tuesday with Setareh Ghandehari, an advocacy director of Detention Watch Network who has the hashtag “AbolishBorders” in her bio, to discuss her organization’s demands “for a world without ICE detention.” ICE Deputy Director Patrick Lechleitner defended Lumpkin’s meeting with Ghandehari, claiming during a Thursday press conference that having such discussions with immigration advocacy groups is “what we need to do.

“We meet with as many parties on either side of the aisle as possible to get everyone’s take on this,” Lechleitner said. “We’re mission-focused and mission-oriented and we support our workforce as much as possible to get the mission done.”

Lechleitner then said it was “absolutely not” counterintuitive to ICE’s mission for Lumpkin to meet with someone like Ghandehari.

WATCH:

“It’s not out of the normal debate with various organizations that are more aggressive on immigration, or want to be less aggressive on immigration,” Lechleitner said. “It’s actually what we need to do. We need to make sure we understand the dialogue so that we can communicate with folks and explain kind of where we’re coming from.”

The Biden administration has taken several measures that limit ICE immigration enforcement abilities, including curbing illegal migrant apprehensions and deportations. ICE had thousands of empty beds in detention facilities as of October.

Illegal immigration has skyrocketed under the Biden administration’s policies. Migrant apprehensions at the southern border passed 2 million in fiscal year 2023, up from roughly 1.6 million in 2021 but down from 2.2 million in fiscal year 2022, according to Customs and Border Protection data.

ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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