Firings and White House anger as Trump's ICE struggles to hit arrest numbers: report

Despite the Trump administration's media blitz showing "Cops TV-style roundups" of undocumented migrants that has struck fear even in the hearts of school children, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is falling short of President Donald Trump's promise to deport "millions" of people straight out of the gate, according to a new report in The Washington Post.

The administration's initial goals of "1,200 to 1,500 arrests per day," netted just "800 per day in late January after Trump took office to fewer than 600 during the first 13 days of February," wrote reporters Nick Miroff and Marianne LeVine.

"ICE spent weeks leading up to Inauguration Day preparing target lists of people they could arrest during the opening salvo of Trump’s promised crackdown," they wrote. However, anonymous current and former ICE officials told them that "Those target lists have been depleted, and with so many officers working six or even seven days a week, the agency has had little time to do the research, surveillance and planning required to rebuild them and coordinate arrests."

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To help bring up numbers, "Trump has enlisted officers and agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration, the U.S. marshals, the FBI and other agencies," the report continued. However, Jason Houser, chief of staff for ICE during the Biden administration told them, “I see a lot of show," adding that federal officials who usually investigate illicit firearms, drugs and sex traffickers are now “standing around in their jackets arresting noncriminals” in an attempt to keep up appearances.

The report added, "The top two enforcement officials at ICE were removed from their jobs this week and reassigned due to what Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem said was a lack of 'results.'"

The WaPo report also states that "a major hindrance to Trump’s mass deportation goals has been ICE’s limited resources and staffing," prompting Republican lawmakers to say they want to "infuse the agency with billions in additional funding to hire more officers."

In addition, "Trump aides have been angered to learn that some ICE detainees arrested since the president took office were released from custody rather than deported" because, "In some instances...they have pending immigration claims and court hearings, or due to medical reasons or a lack of bed space in ICE facilities."

Whether or not the administration is able to reach their lofty goals remains to be seen. "ICE would have to deport more than 2,700 people every day to reach 1 million annually, and the agency has never tallied half that amount in a single year," during the first Trump administration.

Read the Washington Post story here.