ICE head says agents will arrest anyone found in the U.S. illegally, crack down on employers of unauthorized workers [View all]

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.