New Depo Video of Top ICE Official

TALLAHASSEE, Fla.—Following damaging testimony obtained through a Florida Attorney General’s Office deposition of the U.S. Border Chief, Attorney General Ashley Moody is releasing new evidence highlighting intentionally weak immigration enforcement by the Biden administration. Earlier this month, lawyers for Attorney General Moody deposed Immigration and Customs Enforcement Executive Associate Director for Enforcement and Removal Operations Corey Price.

Under oath, Director Price testified that ICE is removing more than seven times fewer inadmissible immigrants than the agency did in 2012. Price admitted ICE is booking-in roughly half the number of immigrants it did during the Trump administration. Price also testified that ICE is booking in roughly 40% the number of immigrants it did during the last border surge. Finally, Price testified that senior Biden officials knew its immigration priorities would cut enforcement in half, yet still implemented them.

Attorney General Ashley Moody said, “Our deposition provides even more proof that the Biden administration is intentionally underenforcing federal immigration law in a way that has never been seen. At every phase of the process, Biden is purposely failing to enforce the law and detain and remove inadmissible immigrants. Career ICE officials warned the administration that their reckless policies would drastically cut enforcement and still Biden continued to implement them—proving yet again, we only have Biden to blame for the border crisis and the surge in American deaths from Mexican fentanyl.”

Last year, Attorney General Moody sued the Department of Homeland Security for failing to follow federal law and detain inadmissible immigrants intercepted at the border until they are repatriated to the country of their citizenship—as is required under the Immigration and Nationality Act. In the last full month of the Trump administration, Border Patrol released 17 illegal immigrants into the U.S. pending resolution of immigration cases. By July 2021, six months after Biden's inauguration, the Biden administration released more than 60,000 immigrants in a single month.

According to federal documents provided to Florida during discovery, DHS disclosed that more than 48,000 illegal immigrants, who indicated intention to travel to Florida, failed to check in with ICE. The federal government now has no idea of the immigrants' location or activity—even though most of them are legally inadmissible.

To view the second amended complaint in the case, click here.

On Sept. 9, 2022, Chief Deputy Attorney General John Guard took ICE Executive Associate Director Corey Price’s deposition as part of discovery in one of Florida’s immigration cases. The United States sought to prevent the deposition, and the state of Florida had to go to court and have a federal judge order the deposition.

To view additional portions of the deposition related to this release, click here.

The deposition is evidence in Florida’s case no. 3:21-cv-1066. The case is currently pending in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida. Trial is set for January 2023.