Acting ICE Director Mark Morgan arrived at the agency as part of a broader Homeland Security Department shakeup in recent months. | Cliff Owen, File/AP Photo immigration Acting ICE director: ‘Congress has absolutely failed’ to stem border crisis

President Donald Trump’s pick to run Immigration and Customs Enforcement blasted lawmakers Tuesday for failing to change laws to discourage migrants from trekking to the United States.

Speaking with reporters at ICE headquarters, acting Director Mark Morgan urged Congress to rework laws to detain families for longer periods and to permit the rapid deportation of unaccompanied minors.


“Congress has absolutely failed in this area,” Morgan said during a roundtable with other top ICE officials. “It’s unsustainable and nobody should want this.”

Morgan also pressed lawmakers to approve a $4.5 billion supplemental request that would bolster capacity to house families and children, as well as increase detention beds for single adults. The administration has pushed for the funding to deal with what it describes as an unprecedented crisis on the southwest border.

Morgan arrived at ICE as part of a broader Homeland Security Department shakeup in recent months. The White House abandoned its previous nominee for the role, Ronald Vitiello, in April. Trump said at the time that he would go in a “tougher direction“ with the ICE nominee.

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However, Trump’s decision to tap Morgan came as a surprise. Morgan previously served as chief of the Border Patrol during the Obama administration, but was pushed out just days into Trump’s presidency. In recent months, he’s bolstered his hard-line immigration credentials by making inflammatory comments about undocumented immigrants on Fox News.

In a January appearance on "Tucker Carlson Tonight," for instance, Morgan said: "I’ve been to detention facilities where I’ve walked up to these individuals that are so-called minors, 17 or under, and I’ve looked at them and I’ve looked at their eyes, Tucker — and I’ve said that is a soon-to-be MS-13 gang member. It’s unequivocal.”

During his hour-long session with reporters on Tuesday morning, Morgan blamed the Mexican government for failing to stem the flow of migrants from Central America.

“It is time they get off the sidelines and join us on the field,” he said.

The criticism of Mexico follows Trump’s demand last week that the Mexican government step up immigration enforcement. The president vowed to place a 5 percent tariff on Mexican goods by Monday if the situation doesn’t change and then gradually escalate the duties to 25 percent by October.

Morgan said the Trump administration continues to seek a “safe third country” asylum deal with Mexico, despite resistance from the current administration of Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Under such an agreement, migrants would be required to seek asylum in Mexico if they pass through that country en route to the United States.

“I know for a fact that they’ve been pushing hard for Mexico to sign that safe third country [deal],” Morgan said Tuesday. “The international standard is that when you depart a country, you claim asylum in the first country you come to.”

Top Mexican officials traveled to Washington this week to broker a deal that would stave off the tariffs, but a safe third country agreement does not appear to be under discussion. During a press conference at the Mexican embassy Monday, Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard rejected the idea that his government would assent to an asylum pact.

During the question-and-answer session Tuesday, Morgan stressed that his agency would enforce immigration laws for all violators, including families.

“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 fielded queries about the Trump administration’s commitment to targeting employers who hire undocumented immigrants. A report last week by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University found only 11 people faced criminal charges for knowingly hiring undocumented workers during a one-year period that began April 2018.

Morgan said federal law limits the opportunities to prosecute businesses.

“I’m not trying to make excuses, but the actual prosecution of an employer is really, really difficult,” he said.