By REBECCA SANTANA and ELLIOT SPAGAT, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is reassigning at least half the top leadership at Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices around the country in a major shake-up of the agency responsible for carrying out the president’s vision for mass deportations, according to one current and one former U.S. government official.
The current official, who was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter and spoke on condition of anonymity, said 12 ICE field office directors — the officers who run the network of field offices around the country responsible for immigration enforcement — were being reassigned.
Half are to be replaced by existing or retired Customs and Border Protection staff, while the other half would be replaced by ICE officers, both the current and former officials said. The changes were initiated by the Homeland Security Department, the current official said, without specifying which cities were impacted.
The former official, who has direct knowledge of the changes and spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss information that was not intended for public release, said on top of the 12 reassignments, leaders in another four cities were being swapped out through retirements or other circumstances. He said the cities include major immigration enforcement targets such as Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington.
He added that ICE leadership has been discussing the changes with other Trump administration officials for some time as part of a broad review of the agency.
The reason for the personnel changes wasn’t immediately clear. But they indicate a greater integration of Border Patrol agents in ICE at a time when Customs and Border Protection has been accused of using heavy-handed tactics in its immigration enforcement.
A major shakeup in Trump’s immigration enforcement leadership
With a total of 25 field offices around the country, the reassignments amount to turnover of about half or more of the top staffers carrying out the president’s hardline immigration enforcement plans, which has seen a major deployment of law enforcement in major American cities, thousands of arrests and surging fear among residents, especially in immigrant communities.
Homeland Security and the White House did not comment on the reassignments and each instead highlighted that all elements of immigration enforcement were working as one team.
Putting Customs and Border Protection officers into top positions within Immigration and Customs Enforcement would create an expanded role for an agency that is already at the forefront of many of the aggressive tactics seen in both Los Angeles and now in Chicago.
CBP officers — specifically Border Patrol agents — have carried out some of the most controversial operations as part of immigration crackdowns in both of those cities, including a recent raid in Chicago where officers rappelled down onto a building in an apartment complex from a helicopter. Border Patrol agents have also popped out of a moving truck and chased after people and conducted patrols through downtown Chicago.
Border Patrol agents protect the land and water between the official border crossings to prevent human trafficking, drug smuggling or other types of contraband from entering the U.S. ICE, since its creation in 2003, is the main agency responsible for immigration enforcement inside the country.
But during the Trump administration, Border Patrol agents have been taking part in immigration enforcement operations around the country, far from their more traditional duties.
Gregory Bovino, the Border Patrol sector chief from California who has been heading the Border Patrol’s operations in both cities, is himself accused of throwing tear gas canisters at protesters and took the stand Tuesday as a defendant in a federal lawsuit about whether federal officials are using excessive force in Chicago.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement says its agents carry out “targeted enforcement operations,” which often involve hours of time staking out people they’re trying to remove from the country.
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It’s the latest in a series of personnel changes
This is the third shake-up at ICE since Trump took office, reflecting the importance of the agency’s role in executing the president’s vision.
In February, Homeland Security reassigned Caleb Vitello, the acting director of ICE, to another position. Todd Lyons, a veteran ICE agent, was later announced as the new acting head of the agency, a position he still holds.
Then in May, ICE announced the reassignment of the two top officials heading the agency’s main branches.
A spokesperson for Homeland Security, Tricia McLaughlin, did not comment Tuesday on the personnel changes but said in a statement that the department remained “laser focused on RESULTS and we will deliver.”
“This is one team, one fight,” she said. “President (Donald) Trump has a brilliant, tenacious team led by Secretary (Kristi) Noem to deliver on the American people’s mandate to remove criminal illegal aliens from this country.”
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in an e-mailed statement: “The President’s entire team is working in lockstep to implement the President’s policy agenda, and the tremendous results from securing the border to deporting criminal illegal aliens speak for themselves.”
Spagat reported from Chicago.
