What Now? The Next Great Immigration Debate

Event Details

JOHN MORTON was unanimously confirmed as the director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) by the U.S. Senate in 2009. ICE is the principal investigative arm of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the second-largest investigative agency in the federal government. Prior to his appointment by the president, Morton spent 15 years at the Department of Justice, where he served as assistant U.S. attorney, counsel to the deputy attorney general, and acting deputy assistant attorney general of the criminal division. During his tenure at ICE, Morton has strengthened ICE’s investigative efforts, with a particular emphasis on border crimes, export controls, intellectual property enforcement, and child exploitation. He has also sought to prioritize ICE’s immigration enforcement efforts around the removal of criminal offenders, recent border violators, and those who ignore orders of removal or obtain immigration status by fraud.