The Trump administration is preparing to overhaul the leadership of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in an effort to ramp up mass deportations, according to multiple reports. The move comes as the agency falls significantly short of its targets.
Reports indicate that the government intends to reassign several directors of ICE field offices, potentially replacing them with border patrol officials. ICE currently operates 25 field offices across the country, and at least a dozen directors could be affected.
The proposed changes stem from White House frustration over the pace of deportations, which lags behind President Donald Trump's goal of removing one million immigrants in his first year. Stephen Miller, Trump's deputy chief of staff, had set a target of 3,000 arrests per day, but as of late September, ICE averaged only 1,178 daily arrests, according to NBC.
The border patrol, which would supply replacements, has faced criticism following aggressive raids in Chicago and Los Angeles. In August, agents jumped from a rental truck to raid a Home Depot parking lot in Los Angeles, arresting over a dozen people. Earlier in October, a border patrol agent shot a woman five times in Chicago; the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said the woman, a US citizen, drove into a border patrol vehicle.
The DHS, which oversees ICE and the border patrol, stated: 'This is one team, one fight … We have no personnel changes to announce right now but we remain laser focused on results and we will deliver.'
