The Trump administration's lofty quotas are "killing morale" at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency — and some agents are leaving dangerous criminals on the street to go after migrants at Home Depots and bus stops, according to a new report.
The Trump administration has set explicit quotas for ICE arrests. Senior White House advisor Stephen Miller last month directed ICE to up its arrests to target 3,000 per day, up from 1,000 or 1,800 per day. That quota was part of a broader effort to implement what President Donald Trump has called "the largest mass deportation initiative in history."
“ICE Officers are herewith ordered, by notice of this TRUTH, to do all in their power to achieve the very important goal of delivering the single largest Mass Deportation Program in History,” Trump posted on Truth Social.
He said his administration must "expand efforts to detain and deport Illegal Aliens in America’s largest Cities, such as Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York, where Millions upon Millions of Illegal Aliens reside."
But the conservative New York Post reported Tuesday afternoon that the effort has backfired, with ICE insiders saying agents are "desperate" to meet these quotas — and are doing so by forgoing dangerous criminal migrants in favor of "anyone they can get their hands on at the local Home Depot or bus stop."
“These quotas are undermining the agency’s ability to focus on the really serious criminal aliens,” John Sandweg, a former acting ICE director under President Barack Obama, told the outlet.
An ICE insider told the outlet, "All that matters is numbers, pure numbers. Quantity over quality." Multiple sources called the policy “unmaintainable” given their staffing levels, and warned it’s “killing morale."
ICE insiders and Sandweg complained they no longer have several days to investigate gang members and criminals, necessary to take them into custody.
“The transnational gang members, the convicted felons, the bad actors make it hard on ICE find them. They don’t just sit there and make it easy, they don’t show up in a Home Depot parking lot, hanging around,” said Sandweg.