A demand for a dramatic increase in the arrests of people who have illegally entered the country from the White House pushes immigration officers into overdrive and fulfills President Trump's pledge to expel the country.
Immigration and customs enforcement agencies have been carrying out workplace raids across the country, like Los Angeles' clothing districts last week, as they began protests and enormous federal responses. Because agents are incredible shifts, agents try to achieve their arrest goals seven days a week, asking criminal investigators who can help them identify their goals, usually focusing on issues like human trafficking. They also ask the public to call for tips to report illegal immigration.
Ice's work is being supported by a new mapping app that finds people with deportation orders that could quickly be expelled from data extracted from data housed in government agencies, according to documents obtained by the New York Times.
“I said this from the first day. If you're illegally in the countryside, you're not off the table,” Trump's border emperor Thomas D. Homan said in an interview. “So we're opening that opening.”
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, who is well versed in his involvement, has been heavily involved in behind the scenes efforts, meeting with Top Ice officials in recent weeks to scrutinise the numbers.
The intense pressure from top administration officials creates an atmosphere that increases the likelihood of mistakes when officers and agents are being pushed to make the consequential decision, former authorities said.
“You're going to be people who are pushed to the limits that may quickly be unable to get things right, including information about a person's status,” said Sarah Saldanya, director of ICE in the Obama administration. “All of that takes time and effort. Pushing this number – it's very concerning except if the work is being done correctly.”
White House officials say the administration needs to take measures.
“Preserving President Trump's promise to deport illegal foreigners is something the administration takes seriously,” spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement. “The violent riots in Los Angeles, including attacks on federal law enforcement agencies that are carrying out basic deportation operations, underscore why it is so important to remove illegal aliens.”
Political interests are high. Trump took office as soon as he took office on a platform built around a pledge to crack down on illegal immigration and large-scale deportation promises.
Since Trump took office, more than 200,000 people in the United States have been sent back to their home or third countries without approval. According to internal government data obtained by the Times, 1.4 million people faced deportation orders by the end of last year.
Miller, a solid advocate for tightening American borders, said in Fox News in late May that Ice will set a “lowest” target of 3,000 people a day. Since January 21, Ice has arrested more than 100,000 suspected of being in the country illegally, according to data obtained by The Times.
In a meeting with agency leaders at Ice headquarters later last month, Miller reviewed the agency's arrest rate and discussed how to ratchet it. At one point, he encouraged ice leaders to target apparent gang members with prominent tattoos, according to people familiar with his comments.
“He didn't have a specific quota for us, but we're looking at the numbers and making sure we're using all the resources to make arrests,” said Garrett Lipa, head of the best official Miami Ice office that oversees the agency's deportation operations at the time. ICE officials, he said, asked Miller for more resources, including extra transportation, to achieve his ambitious goals.
Another official with first-hand knowledge of the meeting, who spoke on condition of anonymity to explain the argument, said he asked if Miller thinks he could strike a million deportation this year.
Former and current agency officials say high expectations have stolen morale in several quarters, creating pressure barrels.
“There's always a state of anxiety,” said Jason Hauser, former ICE director during the Biden administration. “They understand that they're playing Stephen Miller's game. It's not about public safety or national security. It's about typing quota numbers. That's all.”
However, some ICE representatives said they welcomed their focus on their work.
“It's something I'm investing in, so it doesn't feel like a bad thing,” said Carlos Nuñez, supervising deportation officer in Florida.
“We have so much work to be honest with you, we don't have enough time just to get it done,” he said. “My team, all these guys you're here, work 7 days a week and work 24 hours a day. I've already not been on break in a few months.”
Lipa said many agents are making shifts shifting to ensure the entire week is covered. (Homeland Security authorities said the use of shifted shifts is not new.)
The Times recently accompanied Mr. Nunez of Miami and other ice officials who had made a string of arrests. In the course of a few hours, a group of more than 10 officers (including FBI agents and State Department officials at a certain point) tracked and detained a total of three migrants.
In one case, a Honduras man, the brother of the ice target, was arrested when he happened to show up to drive him to work.
That's the mission now, Homan said.
“If they're looking for a target, find a target and he's illegally with the rest of the country, they need to be detained,” he said. “We are not separated from illegal aliens.”
Miami's arrest highlighted one of the main challenges ice faces in promoting arrests. Officers spend extensive time doing supervision and send multiple officers for hours to wager the place. Sometimes the address is outdated or incorrect.
So in recent weeks, Ice has begun to collide with workplaces such as clubs, restaurants, factories and other factories across the country, carrying out raids aimed at gaining more numbers. Officers came down to immigration court in cooperation with the prosecutor to arrest immigrants who competed on the Immigration Court date.
The agency is also asking its citizens to use tip lines to report illegal immigration. In May, officers arrested five men in a Baltimore parking lot based on phone tips. The video of the arrest was posted online by Ice with the caption, “When we call our tip line, we ask!”
Homan said such arrest was permitted if there was “reasonable suspicion” that someone was illegally in the country.
In some offices, investigators who focus on issues like human trafficking are usually asked to help increase arrests. Speaking on condition of anonymity to explain internal tactics, one Homeland Security officer said a special agent of the undercover agent responsible for online sex trafficking investigations has begun setting up a face-to-face meeting with suspected prostitution in order to arrest them potentially on immigration accusations.
Agents also rely on high-tech solutions. According to documents obtained by RIPA and The Times, the new mapping app will allow agents and officers to see areas across the country where many people have been deported. The initial version of the app was called Alien Tracker, or ATRAC.
Lipa said the project was launched with support from members of the Ministry of Government Efficiency. “I know that in my childhood stages of ATRAC, I was an integral part of them,” Lipa said. The White House declined to comment on the app.
Software accessible via mobile phones can map immigrant locations with national deportation orders, allowing officers to even put zeros in certain criminal convicts.
“The heatmap shows where there are final removal orders that can be executable across the country, and that officer can zoom in to those areas,” Lipa said.
The app contains information about more than 700,000 people drawn from data from not only ice but from government-wide agencies. Includes the FBI. Alcohol Bureau, cigarettes, firearms, explosives. US former S service. According to documents obtained by the times, the Social Security Bureau.
The app “ultimately allows centralized control of all internal enforcement priorities,” the document says. This includes data from the Housing and Urban Development Division, the Department of Labor, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Internal Revenue Agency, according to the documents.
The integration of government data to track immigration through the app comes after Musk Aides was actively trying to take advantage of the flow of information held by various agencies. Career officials disputed efforts that said they violated privacy and security protocols and that the union and Watchdog group sued to stop the lawsuit.
According to the documentation, information about each immigrant within the app is available in baseball card style format. Officers should record the outcome of their encounter with their target.
Despite the magic of technology, some ice agents have found addresses on the maps wrong or outdated, according to Homeland Security officials.
The agency faces other challenges in communities like Los Angeles, with a court order issued in 2024 preventing officers from knocking on doors with the intention of arresting people. Experts in the group suing the government over the practice have found that such arrests account for more than a quarter of all residential arrests made by ice with the intention of arresting people inside the house.
In late May, Bill Essayri, a representative U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, ordered that the Department of Justice law enforcement take over the door knock task, according to documents obtained by the Times. An Essayri spokesman confirmed the initiative.
There were some indications that the Ice push was bringing results. The Department of Homeland Security said in a weekend statement that ICE “arrested 2,000 aliens a day.” Trump administration officials pointed out the numbers as signs that their crackdown was working.
However, recently, the number has fallen again, according to data obtained by The Times. On Thursday, Ice arrested about 1,400 people. On Friday, the total exceeded 1,200. On Saturday, the number fell further to about 700.
Homan remained unshakable even amid the protests in Los Angeles.
“We're going to do this immigration operation,” he said on a show hosted by right-wing activist Laura Rumer. “We are going to do that every day in this country, including LA, where you are not going to stop us.
Michael H. Keller, Albert San, Allison McCann and Zoran Kanno Yongs Reports of contributions.
