A Biden-appointed bureaucrat with ties to open border advocates will be hauled before Congress amid accusations she has turned immigration enforcement into a “social service”, DailyMail.com can reveal.
Claire Trickler-McNulty, a powerful director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), has presided over a sharp decline in deportations while pursuing costly and unproven ‘alternatives to detention’ (ATD), according to a letter from the Judiciary Committee of the camera.
Committee Chairman Jim Jordan and Immigration Subcommittee Chairman Tom McClintock accuse her of leaving more than 600,000 illegal immigrants with criminal records “free from reoffending.”
The couple wrote in their letter, addressed to the bureaucrat, that their focus is ’emblematic of the Biden administration’s open border policies that reward illegals aliens to the detriment of American citizens and legal immigrants.
It comes after congressional sources expressed fears that Trickler-McNulty, who previously worked for a nonprofit seeking to end deportations, was trying to push her own agenda and undermine immigration law enforcement. from inside.
Claire Trickley-McNulty, a senior official at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), has been accused of turning the agency into a “social service.”
Trickler-McNulty has been accused of pushing “soft touch” policies amid migrant crossing chaos at the US southwest border. Pictured: A border official helps a migrant cross the Rio Grande from Piedras Negras, Mexico, to Eagle Pass, Texas.
Jim Jordan, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, wants the bureaucrat to explain why she has pursued costly and unproven “alternatives to detention” instead of enforcing the law.
Republicans worry that unelected bureaucrats are exacerbating the border crisis by funneling money to anti-law enforcement groups and pursuing policies contrary to ICE’s mission of enforcing immigration law.
The committee’s letter, shared exclusively with DailyMail.com, highlighted how ICE removed 41 percent fewer illegal immigrants with criminal convictions and charges in 2023 than in 2020.
The letter added that the decline in law enforcement coincided with at least 617,607 criminal aliens on ICE’s non-detained docket, meaning these people “are on American streets and free to reoffend.”
He criticized Trickler-McNulty’s support for detention alternatives, including parenting classes for illegal immigrants, despite a leaked draft 2020 ICE report concluding that such measures have “little value” and entail a “significant expense.” “.
The report found that the “vast majority” of illegal immigrants enrolled in such programs throughout the immigration process ultimately absconded.
The committee’s letter highlighted the recent example of a high-profile gang member who allegedly absconded from ATD in Colorado after “cutting off” his ankle monitor, before reoffending in the United States.
He asked Trickler-McNulty to appear for questioning before Congress “as soon as possible.”
It comes after US Border Patrol Chief Jason Owens warned that the crisis at the southern border is a “national security threat”, highlighting the tens of thousands of illegal immigrants who have not been detained or processed at the border on their way to the US.
Trickler-McNulty, a political appointee who worked on the Biden-Harris transition team, heads ICE’s Office of Immigration Program Evaluation (OIPE), which signs contracts related to immigration detention.
Prior to her position at the agency, Trickler-McNulty was deputy director of legal services at Kids in Need of Defense (KIND), a nonprofit that previously called for an end to deportations.
In May 2020, while Trickler-McNulty was at KIND, the group signed a letter alongside a group ‘Abolish ICE’, which criticized the government’s immigration policies.
‘Abolish ICE’ is a broad movement that favors the provision of social services for illegal immigrants over detention and deportation.
Trickler-McNulty previously worked for a nonprofit demanding an end to deportations and was affiliated with the ‘Abolish ICE’ movement during her tenure.
Asylum seekers cross the Rio Grande from Mexico into the United States on September 30, 2023 in Eagle Pass, Texas.
A U.S. Border Patrol agent monitors as migrants enter the United States after crossing the Rio Grande from Mexico on September 30, 2023 in Eagle Pass, Texas. The agent had cut coils of barbed wire to allow them to pass for processing.
Last year, DailyMail.com revealed that Republicans on the Homeland Security Committee feared that Trickler-McNulty had achieved a disproportionate level of influence at ICE, citing a recently released internal memo by former acting ICE Director Tae Johnson that stated that All contracts related to detention programs must be approved by her personally.
Committee sources told DailyMail.com that Trickler-McNulty was now using her influence to turn ICE from “a law enforcement agency to a social services provider.”
The official is allegedly pursuing “soft” policies instead of detention and deportation programs, without the public realizing it, the sources said.
They highlighted the current ICE Alternatives to Detention contract, which Trickler-McNulty said has been split into three separate contracts, including one for “community services.”
Trickler-McNulty is originally from Boulder, Colorado, and now lives in Edmonds, Washington, according to her Facebook profile, across the country from ICE headquarters in Washington, DC.
This includes services like “parenting education.”
DailyMail.com has contacted ICE for comment.
A spokesperson has previously said that “responsibility for managing the U.S. immigration system spans multiple agencies within the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice.”
He added: ‘U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) policy decisions are made in coordination through interagency working groups to ensure that ICE works on behalf of the public and within the confines of the law. .
“ICE continues to facilitate the safe, orderly and humane management of the United States immigration system together with its federal partners.”