President Donald Trump is shaking things up at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) with a bold plan to swap out regional leaders for Border Patrol officials who aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty.
The administration, frustrated with ICE’s sluggish arrest numbers, is pivoting to Border Patrol’s hard-charging tactics to accelerate mass deportation efforts across the nation, NBC News reported.
For months, the White House has been stewing over ICE’s inability to hit the aggressive target of 3,000 arrests per day, a benchmark set by deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller back in mid-May.
Despite having 8,500 officers in enforcement roles, ICE is averaging just 1,178 arrests daily, a far cry from the goal, prompting Miller to warn underperforming regional leaders of potential ousters.
Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons initially pushed back against firing field office directors, but the administration’s patience has clearly run out.
Now, a tightly guarded list compiled by Corey Lewandowski, a special government employee at DHS, and Greg Bovino, Border Patrol sector chief for Chicago, targets at least a dozen of ICE’s 25 field office directors for reassignment in the coming days.
At least half of these ICE leaders are expected to be replaced by Border Patrol officials, signaling a dramatic shift toward the agency’s more muscular approach, which includes large-scale sweeps in major cities.
Unlike ICE’s focus on targeted arrests of known unauthorized migrants, Border Patrol has deployed over 1,500 agents nationwide, using tactics like rappelling from Black Hawk helicopters into apartment buildings—resources ICE simply doesn’t have in its arsenal.
Take Chicago, for instance: earlier this month, agents dropped from a helicopter into a residential building while families slept, a move that’s raised eyebrows even among some ICE leaders who’ve quietly expressed concern over such heavy-handed methods.
Last week in Chicago, videos captured Greg Bovino, the face of these operations, tossing a gas canister into a crowd, an incident now tied to a lawsuit alleging the Trump administration’s tactics are overly aggressive.
Bovino, who reports directly to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem rather than through typical Border Patrol chains, must now face a federal judge in Illinois on Tuesday to answer whether such actions violate a restraining order against excessive force.
Plaintiffs’ attorneys are pointing fingers at Bovino’s personal use of tear gas, while protesters and legal challenges mount against Border Patrol’s urban operations in cities like Los Angeles and Chicago.
“The mentality is CBP does what they’re told, and the administration thinks ICE isn’t getting the job done. So CBP will do it,” said a DHS official, summing up the White House’s no-nonsense stance.
Let’s unpack that: while some may cry foul over Border Patrol’s bold moves, the administration sees ICE’s slower pace as a failure to prioritize national security over progressive sensitivities—a frustration many law-and-order advocates likely share.
“We have no personnel changes to announce right now, but we remain laser focused on RESULTS and we will deliver,” stated DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin, doubling down on the administration’s commitment to action over appeasement.
