Reps. Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Tom McClintock (R-CA) are requesting a transcribed interview from a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement associate director on the agency's "failure" to enforce immigration laws.

Jordan, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, and McClintock, who chairs the Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement, sent a letter on Monday to the deputy executive associate director of ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations requesting an interview as part of its oversight investigation into the enforcement of federal immigration law.

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The letter comes less than a month after Title 42 expired. The pandemic-era policy allowed the federal government to prevent immigrants from certain countries from entering the country. Since then, the number of immigrants entering the United States from Mexico has dropped significantly, but the rate of "gotaways" has increased, according to a Washington Examiner analysis.

In the letter, Jordan and McClintock detail that the removal of illegal immigrants decreased 68% in 2021 compared to 2020. The removal of illegal immigrants remained low in 2022, nearly 70% below the three-year average of removing immigrants between 2018 and 2020, according to the Republicans using ICE annual report data.

"As the Deputy Executive Associate Director for ICE-ERO, you have information that is relevant and necessary to our oversight of the Executive Branch’s enforcement of federal immigration law," the chairmen wrote. "Accordingly, we request that you make yourself available for a transcribed interview with the Committee as soon as possible."

The deputy executive associate director's name was blacked out of the letter, so it is unknown who will be responding to the request. Jordan and McClintock asked the ICE agent to contact the committee by June 19 to schedule the "transcribed interview."

This is not Jordan's first inquiry into ICE's enforcement of immigration policies. He sent letters in March to five acting assistant directors within the Enforcement and Removal Operations office highlighting low numbers of deportation and unused detention spaces.

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Southern border states have felt the pressure of the influx of illegal immigrants in recent years. Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) has bused over 20,000 immigrants across the U.S. since launching his "border bus mission" in April 2022. Democratic cities such as Chicago, New York City, Philadelphia, Denver, and Washington, D.C., are among the cities that have received immigrants sent by Abbott.

Abbott has also asked governors from across the U.S. to deploy military and police troops to help Texas with immigration at the southern border. GOP-led states, such as Tennessee, Florida, Iowa, Mississippi, and Nebraska, have answered Abbott's call.