Trump administration to reassign ICE officials in bid to intensify deportation campaign

The Trump administration is staging a major shake-up at Immigration and Customs Enforcement, with plans to reassign senior leaders in agency offices across the country amid frustrations over current arrest and deportation levels, two sources familiar with the changes told CBS News on Monday.

One U.S. official, who requested anonymity to talk about internal matters, said as many as roughly a dozen local ICE leaders could be reassigned, with some expected to be replaced by current or former officials at Customs and Border Protection, its sister Department of Homeland Security agency. Some of those ICE officials have already been informed of their reassignments, the official added.

The planned shake-up at ICE would be a major leadership overhaul, affecting roughly half of the agency’s 25 field offices.

In most cases, the field office directors won’t be demoted or fired, said two U.S. officials, who described the plan as a way to give certain ICE offices additional support.

The Trump administration has increasingly turned to CBP and Border Patrol officials like Commander Gregory Bovino to expand its government-wide crackdown on illegal immigration, deploying them to apprehend unauthorized immigrants far away from the U.S.-Mexico border, in Democratic-led cities like Chicago and Los Angeles.

Operations by green-uniformed Border Patrol agents in those cities — including arrests at Home Depot parking lots and worksites like car washes — have triggered significant local backlash, with critics accusing the agents of being heavy-handed and arresting immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally but without criminal records.

In a statement to CBS News, DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said, “While we have no personnel changes to announce at this time, the Trump Administration remains laser focused on delivering results and removing violent criminal illegal aliens from this country.”

Abigail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman, said, “The President’s entire team is working in lockstep to implement the President’s policy agenda, and the tremendous results from securing the border to deporting criminal illegal aliens speak for themselves.”

The Washington Examiner reported on the reassignments earlier Monday.

Internally, U.S. officials tell CBS News, some ICE leaders have been frustrated with Border Patrol’s operations in cities — and the opposition they have garnered from local residents. While the Trump administration has made anyone in the U.S. illegally who is encountered by federal officials subject to arrest, ICE says its operations have continued to primarily target immigrants who have committed crimes in addition to being in the country unlawfully.

“We’re arresting criminals, while they are going to Home Depots and car washes,” one U.S. official told CBS News, referring to Border Patrol agents.

Some inside the Trump administration, however, see Border Patrol officials as better equipped to carry out the aggressive and expansive operations needed to reach the ambitious arrest targets set by the White House.

In the spring, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, the architect of President Trump’s mass deportation plans, suggested on Fox News that ICE should be carrying out “a minimum” of 3,000 arrests per day. ICE officials have not met that target. While they have peaked above 2,000 on some days, arrests by the agency typically hover over 1,000 each day.

As of this week, ICE had carried out over 260,000 arrests under the second Trump administration, or an average of approximately 900 per day, according to internal agency data obtained by CBS News.

In less than a year, the Trump administration has shuffled ICE’s leadership several times.

Caleb Vitello, the first official tapped to lead ICE under the second Trump administration, was reassigned in February and replaced by longtime agency veteran Todd Lyons, who continues to serve as acting director. Previous heads of ICE’s deportation unit, Enforcement and Removal Operations, and its investigative branch, Homeland Security Investigations, have also been replaced in recent months.

ICE has not had a Senate-confirmed director since early 2017, under the Obama administration.