Trump reassigns ICE director due to frustration with low deportations

• The acting director of ICE was reassigned due to President Donald Trump’s frustration with low deportation numbers. Caleb Vitello will continue leading the agency’s field and enforcement operations.
• Trump is reportedly angry that more people are not being deported.
• ICE agents have been told to arrest 1,200 to 1,400 individuals per day. They are far below that.

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The Trump administration reassigned the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement due to frustration with progress in carrying out President Donald Trump’s mass deportation operation. According to the Department of Homeland Security, Vitello is still overseeing all field and enforcement operations, including finding, arresting and deporting immigrants in the country illegally. 

How long did Vitello lead ICE?

President Trump installed Vitello as head of ICE on an interim basis. His tenure ended just one month into the administration.

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NBC News reported that President Trump is “angry” that more people are not being deported. He relayed that message to Vitello, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, “border czar” Tom Homan and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller.

Vitello told ICE agents in January that they were expected to meet a quota of 1,200 to 1,400 arrests per day. At the beginning of the Trump administration, ICE posted daily arrest numbers with an average below 1,000 and a high of 1,179.

They have since stopped the daily updates but continue releasing information about individual arrests of those who have committed egregious acts, including murder and sexual assault. 

In a statement earlier this week, Homan defended their efforts. 

“Interior arrests by ICE have increased more than 137% under President Trump.  Arrests of aliens with criminal convictions have doubled under President Trump. The arrests of illegal alien gang members has also doubled,” Homan stated. “Our streets and neighborhoods are that much safer under President Trump.  We are less than a month in and have more to do.”

Why do Trump officials say arrests are down?

Homan and Secretary Noem blamed the agency’s troubles on the Biden Administration. 

“ICE needs a culture of accountability that it has been starved of for the past four years,” Noem said in a recent statement. “President Trump and the American people rightfully demand results, and our ICE leadership must ensure the agency delivers. Accountability is back.”

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The 2024 ICE annual report revealed the agency is significantly understaffed to handle its caseload. Although the caseload has increased by four times since 2015, staffing has remained the same.