What role does ICE play in enforcing Biden's 2023 immigration policies?
Executive summary
ICE served as the operational arm charged with carrying out the Biden administration’s 2023 immigration enforcement approach: implementing narrower interior-enforcement priorities set by the Department of Homeland Security while simultaneously executing large-scale removals and expedited processing at the border as policy shifted in 2023 [1] [2]. That role produced a hybrid enforcement posture—less emphasis on broad interior sweeps in some periods, but heavy use of expedited removal, detainers, and targeted arrests when the administration pivoted to reduce backlogs and respond to surging encounters [3] [4] [2].
1. ICE as the execution arm for DHS priorities: from discretion to targeted enforcement
Biden-era guidance instructed ICE to prioritize national security, public safety, and recent border entrants, requiring officers to weigh the “totality of circumstances” rather than defaulting to wide interior arrests—policy that reshaped who ICE should target inside the United States [1] [5]. That prosecutorial-discretion frame curtailed routine arrests of long-settled noncitizens and directed ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) to concentrate on public-safety and national-security threats, which ICE describes as its statutory mission to identify, arrest, detain and remove such aliens [4] [5].
2. A 2023 shift at the border: expedited removal and operational surge
When Title 42 ended in May 2023 and arrivals surged, the administration leaned on ICE and related DHS components to speed removals: expedited removal processes and programs like Family Expedited Removal Management were used to process and return large numbers without prolonged detention, producing record processing figures in 2023–24 [2] [6]. ICE’s statistics and public reporting show the agency executing charter flights and expulsions under changing legal authorities while coordinating on border processing and removals [4] [2].
3. Tools of enforcement: detainers, arrests, and alternatives to detention
ICE continued to rely on familiar enforcement tools—detainers, interior arrests, and removal of individuals with final orders—yet also expanded monitoring and alternatives-to-detention when capacity or policy demanded it [4] [7]. TRAC and ICE records indicate detainer issuance remained substantial during the Biden years, with monthly counts rising in 2023, and ICE reporting that most detainers related to individuals charged or convicted of crimes [8]. At the same time, critics note increasing use of alternatives and releases under Biden’s priorities [7] [6].
4. Conflicting narratives: enforcement increased vs. enforcement restrained
Observers disagree sharply about whether ICE tightened or loosened enforcement in 2023: independent data show massive expedited removals and high volumes of processing, which proponents argue constitute increased enforcement action [2], while critics and some congressional reports point to fewer removals of noncitizens with criminal convictions compared with earlier years and argue the administration constrained ICE operationally [9]. Think tanks and TRAC analyses find that overall ICE arrests and detentions shifted in composition and timing, producing evidence for both claims depending on which metrics—interior arrests, removals, detainers, or expedited border removals—are emphasized [10] [8].
5. Litigation, politics, and hidden agendas shaping ICE’s role
Policy execution in 2023 unfolded amid intense litigation and partisan pressure that shaped ICE behavior: Republican-led lawsuits and congressional oversight hammered priorities and produced critical reports accusing the administration of lax enforcement, while immigrant-rights groups and civil liberties advocates urged limits on ICE authority and celebrated prioritization of public-safety threats [9] [11]. These competing agendas matter because they influenced DHS guidance, congressional proposals, and the operational latitude ICE had to act [1] [9].
6. Bottom line: ICE enforced a politically mediated, hybrid strategy in 2023
In practice, ICE implemented a hybrid enforcement strategy in 2023—applying DHS priorities that limited blanket interior arrests while intensifying expedited removal and border-focused operations when policy and capacity demanded it—making ICE both a restrained interior enforcer by design and a frontline removal agent when the administration pivoted to process record numbers of migrants [1] [2] [4]. Available sources document these dual roles but also show that assessments of ICE’s aggressiveness vary by metric and by the political lens of the analyst [8] [9].