Trump’s Move To Replace 12 ICE Directors Could Mean More Aggressive and Unconstitutional Immigration Enforcement

Frustrated with the current level of immigration arrests and deportations, the Trump administration is reassigning top Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials and replacing them with United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents, Fox News’ Bill Melugin reported on Monday. The change comes at a time when CBP and its leadership have been accused of aggressive and unconstitutional enforcement tactics in major Democratic cities. 

Sources familiar with the matter told the Washington Examiner that ICE leaders in Denver, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Phoenix, and San Diego have already been reassigned to other posts, at least some of whom will be replaced by senior CBP agents. These cities represent the first five of a total of 12 field offices planned for a leadership overhaul. The agency has a total of 25 field offices nationwide. An additional four cities will also undergo leadership changes due to retirements and other circumstances, a source told the Associated Press. 

Replacing ICE leadership with CBP officials would be an unprecedented move with significant consequences for the future of immigration enforcement under President Donald Trump. Since Trump took office, ICE has led the way in making immigration arrests and detaining an unprecedentedly high number of immigrants in legally dubious ways. And while the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has asserted that it is only targeting “the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens,” this claim has been debunked since June, when the Cato Institute revealed that 65 percent of individuals taken by ICE had no criminal convictions and 93 percent had no violent convictions. 

While ICE has received most of the media coverage for the Trump administration’s controversial tactics, CBP, which has taken on an increased role in immigration enforcement since January, has also implemented legally suspect mechanisms. Two such high-profile immigration operations in Los Angeles and Chicago, which have been led by CBP Commander Gregory Bovino—who has become the face of Trump’s immigration crackdown—have shown just how ruthless CBP immigration enforcement can be. Unfortunately for immigrants and American citizens, replacing ICE leadership with CBP officials likely means that ICE will double down and implement the controversial enforcement tactics promoted by Bovino across the country.      

Protests in Los Angeles, and most recently Chicago, have broken out over federal agents’ heavy-handed and unconstitutional methods under Bovino’s direction. Bovino himself has been personally accused of deploying excessive force against protestors in Chicago after he was caught on video throwing canisters of tear gas at a crowd of nonviolent protesters without proper warning. On Tuesday, he was called to appear in federal court and answer for allegations that he violated a federal judge’s temporary restraining order meant to limit federal agents’ use of nonlethal weapons and other crowd control measures amid protests. During the hearing, Bovino agreed to return to Ellis’ courtroom every day until the next hearing on November 5 to provide updates and ensure that he and the agents under his command are complying with her order. 

In response to questions about Bovino’s federal court appearance on Tuesday, Chicago’s Democratic Mayor Brandon Johnson called Bovino a “barbaric individual” who he hopes is held accountable by the court. 

While this reorganization will likely lead to more stringent enforcement, it could lead to a fracturing within federal immigration agencies since not everyone in the Department of Homeland Security is on board with these changes. “ICE started off with the worst of the worst, knowing every target they are hitting, but since Border Patrol came to LA in June, we’ve lost our focus, going too hard, too fast, with limited prioritization,” one senior Department of Homeland Security official told Fox News while discussing the leadership changes. “It’s getting numbers, but at what cost?” 

With reports of hiring issues at ICE, more internal dysfunction caused by this shakeup could slow down Trump’s mass deportation goals. The more likely scenario is that these moves will kickstart an even more aggressive deportation campaign. Mass arrests and deportations cannot be achieved by focusing on violent alien criminals alone. The Trump administration knows this, which may be why CBP officials are replacing ICE leadership to usher in a new status quo of aggressive tactics and a shift away from focusing only on criminal aliens in immigration operations around the country.