The Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General on 29 September 2026 issued In FY 2021 – FY 2024, ICE Took Limited Action on Nonimmigrant Overstays, Including Those Deemed High Risk to National Security (OIG-26-38). DHS publicised it in a 5 October statement. The audit covers fiscal years 2021 to 2024 and asks one question: how much enforcement did U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement take on leads about people who entered on temporary visas and then overstayed or broke their terms?

Of 1,769 viable top-priority overstay leads, ICE opened 84 investigations and made two arrests.
Citizen impact: Visitor, student, and temporary-worker visas are the legal front door to the United States, and overstays are the enforcement gap behind that door. The report shows how much of that gap went unworked in 2021–24 and why: a narrowed priority policy, addresses that turned out to be hotels or resorts, and resources that ICE did not even track. Canadians are not the subject of this report. It is about how DHS enforces the visa system that travellers, students, and employers rely on.

The numbers in the audit

  • ICE received 3,145,375 nonimmigrant-overstay leads from CBP over the four years.
  • It rated 104,049 (3.3%) as potential national-security or public-safety concerns (Priorities 1–9). The other 3,041,326 were rated Non-Priority 10.
  • It deemed 21,885 leads viable for investigation (20,648 of them in FY 2021), opened 496 investigations, and made 8 arrests from those lead-initiated investigations.
  • Of 1,769 Priority 1 leads, HSI opened 84 investigations, which led to 2 arrests.
  • ERO received 2,837,188 Non-Priority leads, found 5 to be public-safety threats, investigated all 5, and made 2 arrests. As of June 2026, two of the five were fugitives.

The context the headline numbers leave out

The same report counts other overstay arrests. HSI arrested 263 people from overstay leads opened in earlier years and 183 through unrelated investigations, for 446 in total. ERO arrested 16,458 people later identified as overstays during regular operations such as worksite enforcement. Those people were found by other means, not through the overstay-lead system the audit tested. The “104,049 threats” framing in some coverage also needs care. The report says the priority rating draws on risk factors including age, country of origin, gender, and watchlist data. A Priority 1–9 rating flags a potential concern. It is not a finding that the person is dangerous.

Why the OIG says it happened

The OIG ties the drop in viable leads after FY 2021 to the 30 September 2021 DHS memorandum Guidelines for the Enforcement of Civil Immigration Law, issued by then-Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. It told ICE to target people who threatened national security, public safety, or border security. The report notes that Executive Order 14148 rescinded that memo on 20 January 2025. The OIG also found that at the end of FY 2024, HSI could not refer leads for 194 of 205 Priority 1 individuals, partly because of insufficient address information. ICE told auditors that many addresses it gets from CBP are temporary ones such as hotels. ICE could not say what resources overstay work needed, because it did not track them. The report adds that Public Law 119-21 (July 2025) gave DHS almost $30 billion for ICE operations, including overstay enforcement.

Recommendation and response

The OIG made one recommendation: that ICE develop and implement a plan to increase investigations and enforcement actions on Priority 1 overstays. ICE concurred. It said HSI would prioritise overstays with a nexus to national security, fraud, smuggling, worksite enforcement, or human trafficking, with an estimated completion date of 30 September 2027. ICE’s response also argued that the audit’s usefulness was limited by its scope and by timing: the audit began in August 2024. The OIG replied that three government shutdowns, covering 56% of fiscal 2026 through 1 May, delayed publication.

What this piece refuses

Do not write that 104,049 “threats” were let loose. They were risk-rated leads. Do not write that ICE arrested only eight overstays in four years; the report counts 446 more HSI arrests and 16,458 ERO arrests made by other means. Do not attribute quotes to Mayorkas or ICE that are not in the report.

Contested: The current DHS leadership calls the report proof that the previous administration ignored security risks. Supporters of the 2021 priorities memo argued at the time that limited agents should focus on the most dangerous cases. The audit’s own data cuts against both: even the top-priority leads the policy pointed to produced 84 investigations and two arrests. The verified record is the audit’s tables and ICE’s signed response.

Bottom line

Verified as of 6 October 2026 (OIG-26-38): 3,145,375 overstay leads, 104,049 rated potential concerns, 21,885 viable, 496 investigated, 8 lead-driven arrests, and 2 arrests from 1,769 Priority 1 leads in FY 2021–24. Watch for ICE’s corrective plan, due 30 September 2027, and any follow-up audit of current-administration enforcement.