Acting Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Mark Morgan said Tuesday that "Congress has absolutely failed" to prevent illegal immigration, Politico reports.
During a roundtable with leading ICE officials at the agency's headquarters Tuesday, Morgan said Congress must allow law enforcement to detain migrant families for longer periods of time and allow them to deport unaccompanied minors more quickly.
"Congress has absolutely failed in this area," Morgan said. "It's unsustainable and nobody should want this."
He added the agency will not show leniency to anyone who breaks the law to enter the country.
"We don't exempt anybody," Morgan said. "I don't think you want the director of ICE exempting a demographic that is in violation of our immigration laws based on my own political, personal ideology or moral stance."
He also pushed members of Congress to grant a supplemental request of $4.5 billion to increase the agency's ability to house families and children.
Morgan was the head of Border Patrol in former President Barack Obama's administration, but has taken a harder stance since taking over ICE. He added Tuesday the Trump administration is hoping to secure a "safe third country" asylum agreement with Mexico following Trump's tariff threat.
"I know for a fact that they’ve been pushing hard for Mexico to sign that safe third country [deal]," Morgan said. "The international standard is that when you depart a country, you claim asylum in the first country you come to."
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