"We are strongly committed to carrying out our priorities to remove serious criminal offenders first and we definitively do not set quotas," Morton told the Los Angeles Times.

Even before he joined ICE, Morton had "a positive impression" of the agency and Customs and Border Patrol and believed that it had better management and "stronger investments in enforcement policies" than its predecessor agency, according to 2004 remarks. He also said he supported comprehensive immigration reform,he told the Migration Policy Institute.

Detention Centers

Morton has made improving conditions at immigrant detention centers a primary goal. ICE and its contractors house almost 30,000 detainees at a cost of more than $2.5 billion a year, and many detainees live in prison-like conditions.

"The power of detention is a very important power to carrying out the duties of the agency and securing the border," Morton said at his confirmation hearing. "We need to take a hard look and make sure the poeple we are detaining are being detained for those reasons and they're been detained in conditions and facilities that are commensurate with their risk of flight or danger."

In January 2010, Morton annouced plans to overhaul the detention system that would improve health care and government oversight. By June, detainees' families should be able to search online to find out where their relatives were being held.

These reforms won't solve all of the problems with the system, though. Mentally-disabled detainees, for instance, are held in Texas without proper medical attention, The New York Times reported in March 2010.

287(g) Program

One of the most controversial initiatives of DHS' immigration work is the 287(g) program, which invests local law enforcement agents with federal powers over illegal immigrants.

At his nomination hearing, Morton said the program could work "with careful oversight training and basic integrity."

"We need to make sure it's done under clear guidelines with appropriate training," he said.

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