Immigration and Customs Enforcement has launched the Trump administration’s largest deportation crackdown yet, calling for more than 5,000 federal agents and 21,000 National Guard troops to join the arrest effort, according to a report.
“Operation at Large” calls for 3,000 ICE agents, 2,000 Justice Department employees, including from the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Agency, 500 Customs and Border Protection staff, and 250 from the IRS, NBC News reports.
It follows a “tense” meeting with White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller last month, where he reportedly “berated” staff and threatened to fire ICE field office leaders who are in the lowest 10 percent of monthly arrest numbers, according to the outlet.
The 21,000 National Guard members the administration wants to support ICE have not yet been approved by the Defense Department, NBC reports.
Deploying those officials has been “a source of tension” among some, according to the outlet, who “feel they have been taken off other core national security missions.”
At a meeting in mid-May, Miller and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem demanded immigration agents significantly increase daily arrests to 3,000.
Miller, President Donald Trump’s top adviser and architect of the administration’s aggressive immigration policies, and Noem told agents they needed to up daily arrests and deportations during the meeting at ICE’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. on May 21, according to Axios.
The figure is approximately triple the number of daily arrests that ICE agents were making at the beginning of the Trump administration, the outlet noted.
While Noem took a “milder approach” during the meeting, Miller adopted a “harsh” tone with agents and “had people leaving the meeting feeling their jobs could be in jeopardy if the new targets aren't reached,” Axios previously reported.
Responding to the latest claims about Miller’s threats, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson told The Independent: “Keeping President Trump’s promise to deport illegal aliens is something the Administration takes seriously.”
“We are committed to aggressively and efficiently removing illegal aliens from the United States, and ensuring our law enforcement officers have the resources necessary to do so,” she added.
