U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director Joseph Edlow warned Thursday on Newsmax’s “The Chris Salcedo Show” that the ongoing government shutdown is jeopardizing national security and emboldening cities that defy federal immigration law.
“I think ultimately what we’re seeing right now, this lapse in funding, is putting America at risk,” Edlow said. Despite USCIS maintaining its own revenue stream through application fees, he stressed that the broader freeze on federal operations undermines coordination between immigration, border, and law enforcement agencies.
“While USCIS still continues to have its resources, we’re going to use those resources to do everything that we can to declare war on fraud, to declare war on public safety threats, and ultimately on national security threats,” he continued.
“This is what this agency is meant to do, and this is what it does under the leadership that’s been given to us by President [Donald] Trump and [Department of Homeland Security] Secretary [Kristi] Noem.”
Edlow sharply criticized Democrat-run sanctuary cities, accusing local leaders of obstructing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other federal officers tasked with maintaining public safety.
“It’s unconscionable what is going on in these cities,” he said. “Blue cities need to be working with the Department of Homeland Security [DHS] to keep our communities safe.
“We have a duty, a responsibility, they have sworn an oath to uphold the law, all laws. I’m sorry if it’s something that they don’t agree with in immigration laws, but the bottom line is the rule of law must be held sacred and prioritized over everything else.”
He charged that Democrat mayors and police chiefs are “doing everything they can to obfuscate what’s going on and to make it look like ICE, USCIS, CBP (Customs and Border Protection), and other law enforcement is not doing the job that they’ve been tasked to do.”
Edlow credited federal law enforcement agencies and the National Guard as “the only ones in these cities that are really keeping order.”
The USCIS director also pointed to what he called an “immeasurable” influx of illegal immigrants into liberal-run metropolitan areas during the four years of the Biden administration.
“I think the number is immeasurable at this point,” Edlow said.
“Ultimately, what we’ve seen is under four years of lawlessness under the Biden administration, these individuals have been allowed to come in, go anywhere they want, and now that we are seeing crackdowns, they know there’s organized efforts to get them into these cities where they think they’re going to get this sanctuary.
“But guess what? They’re not going to get it.
“Kristi Noem has been doing an amazing job with her ICE director and all of the men and women that are serving that agency on the ground to clean up these cities and to restore order and the integrity of the immigration system.”
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