Vice President J.D. Vance defended the Trump administration’s pace of immigration arrests and deportations Wednesday, saying they are trying to rebuild a Homeland Security operation that was “gutted” by President Biden.
Visiting the border in Texas, Mr. Vance hailed the tremendous drop in illegal crossings but acknowledged room to improve on arresting and ousting illegal immigrants already in the U.S.
“Rome wasn’t built in a day,” he said. “President Biden gutted the entire immigration enforcement regime of this country. We are trying to rebuild.”
Arrests are up significantly but deportations are down. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement averaged about 645 deportations a day at the end of February, which is 17% lower than at the same time in 2024. That’s largely because there are fewer border cases to oust, and interior enforcement is tougher.
Mr. Vance made an appeal to Congress to pony up more money to fund the deportation flights and the teams of officers who are spreading into communities to look for targets.
He also urged illegal immigrants to self-deport.
SEE ALSO: Vance tours border, touts plummet in border crossings
Mr. Vance said President Trump wants to “build the entire border wall” by the end of his second term, though he didn’t say what that means in terms of mileage.
He flatly ruled out a reporter’s question about talk that U.S. forces might move into Mexico.
“No,” he said.
Mr. Vance was accompanied by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.
Ms. Gabbard said she’s concerned about some of the migrants who entered during the Biden administration. She pointed to public reporting that a thousand migrants made it to the U.S. through a smuggling network with ties to the Islamic State.
Authorities belatedly realized “hundreds” of them had potential terrorist ties. The Biden administration arrested “a little over 100” of them last year, but then released all but eight, Ms. Gabbard said.
She wanted to know about the others.
“Where are they, what are they doing, what may they be plotting?” she said.
The portion of the border that they toured has seen a dramatic change.
Mr. Vance said agents used to get 1,500 illegal immigrant encounters a day. Now they are at 30.
Mr. Hegseth said that border-wide, the drop is 98%.
“We’re not yet at 100% operational control but we are on our way,” the Pentagon chief said.
