ICE head says agents will arrest anyone found in the U.S. illegally, crack down on employers of unauthorized workers
Source: CBS News
Updated on: July 20, 2025 / 12:53 PM EDT
Washington In an exclusive interview with CBS News, the head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said his agents will arrest anyone they find in the country illegally, even if they lack a criminal record, while also cracking down on companies hiring unauthorized workers. Todd Lyons, the acting director of ICE, said his agency will prioritize its "limited resources" on arresting and deporting "the worst of the worst," such as those in the U.S. unlawfully who also have serious criminal histories.
But Lyons said non-criminals living in the U.S. without authorization will also be taken into custody during arrest operations, arguing that states and cities with "sanctuary" policies that limit cooperation between ICE and local law enforcement are forcing his agents to go into communities by not turning over noncitizen inmates.
"What's, again, frustrating for me is the fact that we would love to focus on these criminal aliens that are inside a jail facility," Lyons said during his first sit-down network interview on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan." "A local law enforcement agency, state agency already deemed that person a public safety threat and arrested them and they're in detention."
"I'd much rather focus all of our limited resources on that to take them into custody, but we do have to go out into the community and make those arrests, and that's where you are seeing (that) increase" in so-called "collateral" arrests, Lyons added, referring to individuals who are not the original targets of operations but are nonetheless found to be in the U.S. unlawfully. If ICE encounters someone "that is here in the country illegally, we will take them into custody," Lyons said.
Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ice-head-todd-lyons-agents-will-arrest-anyone-found-illegally-crack-down-on-employers/
You're not "cracking down" on ANY of those companies (let alone the 3rd party contract labor businesses who actually find these folks), in order to instead go after children who were born here and are citizens and separate them from their parents, or people with valid work permits and/or green cards or the appropriate visas. Meanwhile, those "companies" being targeted are watching half their workforce being decimated, and are either shrugging it off or are stunned into silence like deer in the headlights.


marble falls
(67,044 posts)tavernier
(13,811 posts)chouchou
(2,155 posts).....my eyes could not believe the produce. I mean, tomatoes were 3 times the price when ..."
BOSSHOG
(43,329 posts)That no US Citizens ever commit felonies.
Think. Again.
(22,412 posts)...If they do that even once, every major farming and manufacturing conglomerate will have trump out of the White House faster than a shopper swipes a credit card on payday.
Bernardo de La Paz
(57,163 posts)FakeNoose
(37,916 posts)

Initech
(105,680 posts)Fuck ICE!
SunSeeker
(56,167 posts)I haven't.
Deminpenn
(16,919 posts)deported once their case is resolved.
republianmushroom
(20,690 posts)not if they are rich republican donors. How many employers have been charged so far.
Vinca
(52,401 posts)ICE has even entered the state he lives in yet.
maxsolomon
(36,909 posts)Empty the fields of ag workers, empty the slaughterhouses, empty the restaurant kitchens, empty the concrete, drywall, landscaping trades, remove all the house cleaners.
I don't think America will like it as much as they thought they would in 2024.