Trump plans to install Border Patrol officials to lead a more aggressive migrant crackdown

[highplainsdem]

Source: NBC

The Trump administration is planning to replace some regional leaders at Immigration and Customs Enforcement with Border Patrol officials in an attempt to intensify its mass deportations effort amid growing frustration with the pace of daily arrests, according to two Homeland Security Department officials, one former DHS official and one federal law enforcement official.

President Donald Trump’s top aides have welcomed Border Patrol’s more aggressive tactics to secure arrests, such as rappeling into apartment buildings from Black Hawk helicopters and jumping out of rental trucks in Home Depot parking lots, as they’ve become disappointed with ICE, the officials said.

-snip-

The White House has signed off on a list of at least a dozen directors of ICE field officers who are set to be reassigned in coming days, the two DHS officials, the former DHS official and the federal law enforcement official said. They said that at least half of them would be replaced with Border Patrol officials. ICE has 25 field offices around the country, so the move could replace nearly half of the agency’s leaders.

The list was compiled by Corey Lewandowski, a special government employee at DHS who advises Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, and Greg Bovino, the Border Patrol sector chief overseeing the agency’s operations in Chicago and previously in Los Angeles, the law enforcement official said.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/trump-plans-install-border-patrol-officials-lead-aggressive-migrant-cr-rcna240102

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See reply 2 below for a long Bluesky thread with more info.

[rzemanfl]

1. Fucking Nazis.

[popsdenver]

3. I spent some time around

a couple of Border Patrol assholes years ago. I have never seen such outrageous racist individuals in my life, particularly towards Mexicans......

[highplainsdem]

2. Much more info here, from Aaron Reichlin-Melnick of the American Immigration Council:

🚨BIG changes happening -- ICE leadership is being purged tonight. The old guard, which prioritized targeted enforcement operations aimed at people with criminal records, is being replaced with Border Patrol and Gregory Bovino's "Midway Blitz" style.

Think things are bad now? It'll get worse.

— Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@reichlinmelnick.bsky.social) 2025-10-28T00:27:01.326Z

Other outlets are now reporting. First to report tonight was Anna Giaritelli at the Washington Examiner, whose story if anything missed how big the purge was. It's not just five cities; ICE Field Office Directors are being fired in at least a dozen cities, and will be replaced by CBP people instead.

— Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@reichlinmelnick.bsky.social) 2025-10-28T00:34:09.091Z

NBC has a story on this as well already, and they've got an indicative quote as to how things will go:

"'The mentality is CBP does what they’re told, and the administration thinks ICE isn’t getting the job done,;' one of the DHS officials said. 'So CBP will do it." www.nbcnews.com/politics/imm...

— Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@reichlinmelnick.bsky.social) 2025-10-28T00:35:04.876Z

THIS is the reason why I have consistently tried to emphasize that Border Patrol and ICE are different agencies with different duties and different leadership and different styles.

Border Patrol are the aggro cowboys compared to ICE. Now they're going to be the ones running the show.

— Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@reichlinmelnick.bsky.social) 2025-10-28T00:36:47.098Z

Also, note that the person making all these decisions is not Secretary Noem; it's Corey Lewandowski, who is still a "special government employee" (and by many reports sleeping with Noem and running the agency while she does mostly TV), as well as Gregory Bovino himself.

— Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@reichlinmelnick.bsky.social) 2025-10-28T00:41:11.681Z

While it's too soon to tell exactly how this will change ICE operationally, suffice to say that, when you combine this with the massive surge in new recruits, the institutional culture of the agency may be forever changed towards a far more aggressive, militarized posture.

— Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@reichlinmelnick.bsky.social) 2025-10-28T00:43:45.175Z

Bill Melugin got more details but Anna G. at the Examiner broke the story. Worth noting also that Bill is clearly telegraphing the message that the rank and file at ICE are NOT happy about this.

This is going to be a good time for reporters to get inside stories from disgruntled ICE staff.

— Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@reichlinmelnick.bsky.social) 2025-10-28T00:48:37.880Z

Pulling this into the main thread because you flagged an underappreciated part of this (which Bill Melugin touches on).

Homan, despite being a blowhard, prefers targeted enforcement. Lewandowski and Bovino want MASS deportations and don't care about who they get -- and they won this fight.

— Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@reichlinmelnick.bsky.social) 2025-10-28T00:54:05.435Z

[ananda]

4. Sorry, but all the anti-immigrant tactics I've seen so far...

have been very aggressive.

So I don't think this change is really all that
meaningful in terms of tactics...

but rather it's proabably about money and
corruption in some form or fashion.

[Metaphorical]

5. Training

ICE has been inundated with lots of barely qualified recruits, and they are discovering the hard way that nobody actually has a clue about what they're doing. They don't have the senior people to train those recruits, and are essentially scavenging that expertise from CBP. Trump also has absolutely no idea about how to stand up a large, complex bureaucracy, and so is not actually taking the time to put into place procedures and processes for training because it goes against his own belief that nobody is as competent as he is (even though he's not). I worked as a contractor with DHS when it was first getting off the ground, and it took almost a decade for it to reach an operational level.

[pat_k]

6. Corey f-ing Lewandowski is a "special employee" because his history of sexual assault...

and drunken groping wouldn't pass the laugh test for nomination to anything.

Those banished from Trump world for bad behavior are like bad pennies. There is apparently no behavior bad enough to preclude a welcome back. Unless of course it is failing to kiss Trump's ass. That will get you booted but quick.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

7. Maybe just maybe there aren't as many undocumented immigrants as they say. . . . nt

[Bayard]

8. Remember when trump said they were only going to deport dangerous criminals?

They're just grabbing whoever they can now. Out of control, increasingly more violent. He has some ulterior motive with all this. I have a feeling it may involve American citizens.