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Democrats have called the diverting of federal employees inappropriate. Some of those reassigned employees and officials expressed concern about unfinished work at their original agencies in conversations with the Washington Examiner.

The Trump administration has not given an estimate for how long it expects it will take the federal government to arrest and deport potentially millions of illegal immigrants. President Donald Trump initially said he would prioritize arresting criminals, but has vastly expanded the deportation operation to include all illegal immigrants.

With the goal of 1 million arrests by next January and roughly 11 million illegal immigrants residing in the U.S., four years will not be long enough to complete the undertaking, and it could mean yearslong assistance from employees of other agencies.

Help may be on the way in the form of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Trump’s marquee tax and spending bill, passing through Congress. If signed into law, the legislation includes billions more for border security and hiring to carry out the mass deportation operation.

“The Big Beautiful Bill will allow ICE to hire 10,000 new officers. ICE currently has 20,000 law enforcement and support personnel in more than 400 offices. A larger force will provide ICE agents with the necessary protection so they can continue to carry out removals,” DHS Secretary Kristi Noem told the Washington Examiner.

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Agencies told to help ICE

During his first week in office, Trump took action to allow more federal police to help ICE. Then-acting DHS Secretary Benjamine Huffman issued a memo that allowed DEA, ATF, and Marshals Service employees to enforce federal immigration laws.

“Mobilizing these law enforcement officials will help fulfill President Trump’s promise to the American people to carry out mass deportations,” a DHS spokesman said in a statement at the time. “For decades, efforts to find and apprehend illegal aliens have not been given proper resources. This is a major step in fixing that problem.”

The FBI was brought into the mix in the spring. According to a May report, agents were told to spend one-third of their time on immigration enforcement and less on white-crime investigations for the rest of the year.

Within the DHS, which houses ICE, agents at HSI were also told to button up existing cases and shift employees to help arrest illegal immigrants, according to three current and former senior ICE officials who spoke with the Washington Examiner.

HSI personnel are usually busy investigating and referring prosecutions to the DOJ for human trafficking, drug smuggling, and other cross-border crimes, but have been pulled to help ICE in the streets with arresting immigrants.

Additionally, DOJ prosecutors have been told to focus on prosecuting all immigration-related offenses, even misdemeanors. 

As ICE personnel face protests and resistance, they need more support to carry out their arrests.

“There’s safety in numbers,” Noem said. “These rioters are cowards who’ll keep challenging us as long as they think they can get away with it. DHS needs to boost its manpower and resources to both remove illegal aliens and keep things peaceful in the process.”

Downside to diverting employees

Agents from HSI feel that making street arrests is below their pay grade, while ICE ERO officers feel too much is being asked of them, at a time when the White House keeps moving the goal post, according to two officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Theresa Cardinal Brown, a former DHS official under the Bush and Obama administrations, explained in a recent op-ed that by prioritizing immigration enforcement, the government was taking resources from enforcing other laws.

“President Trump has decided that the most important mission, across the federal government, is immigration enforcement, not investigating serious crimes of drugs or guns, terrorists or tax evaders, or preparing our military for missions overseas,” Brown wrote in The Hill. “His administration has shifted unprecedented federal resources to this mission, the biggest reorganization since 9/11.”

Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), the most senior Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, told the Washington Examiner that he opposes the move.

“The administration moving all the law enforcement resources it can to assist with mass deportations is a recipe for disaster,” Thompson said in a statement. 

“While we’re under a heightened terrorism threat advisory after the attack on Iran, I seriously doubt the administration has the right people in place to track terrorism threats and protect Americans from attacks,” Thompson said. “Hopefully, news reports that counterterrorism personnel are going back to their jobs is accurate and the administration has realized their grave error. Hopefully it’s not too late.”

Just last week, the FBI disclosed to NBC News that it is returning counterterrorism agents from their temporary immigration mission to their original tasks out of concern about threats from Iran, given recent global events.

The shift to focus on Iranian threats followed a bulletin that the DHS issued days earlier about a heightened threat environment in the U.S., particularly of low-level cyberattacks against U.S. networks, as the U.S. bombed Iran’s nuclear sites.

A senior Border Patrol official in Washington said colleagues have traveled across the country to join ICE, arresting immigrants inside the country since the U.S.-Mexico border is quiet and agents are far less in demand than during the hectic Biden-era border crisis. 

Despite the back-up from Border Patrol, agents have expressed that ICE is far from a well-oiled machine, despite having so much assistance from other agencies. 

“It is disorganized. The raids are not really planned out well in advance, and it’s causing some issues,” said the Border Patrol official in a phone call. “They had to do a lot of sitting around because there were not enough vehicles to conduct operations.”

Agencies support the redirection

In email responses, the ATF and DEA expressed support for the Trump administration’s decision to focus on immigration enforcement, a responsibility outside their standard portfolio. They did not anticipate when the Trump administration would no longer require outside help.

“The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, working closely with our colleagues in the Department of Justice, continues to support the Department of Homeland Security and our federal law enforcement partners in their immigration enforcement efforts,” ATF spokeswoman Ashlee J L Sherrill wrote in an email. “ATF remains steadfast in our commitment to public safety and the rule of law.”

DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin maintained that ICE, as well as HSI, were “excited to be able to do their jobs again,” even though HSI agents have largely been pulled to help arrest illegal immigrants.

Agencies should view their work with ICE as assisting the government in its overall mission of national security, according to a White House spokesperson.

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“Immigration security IS national security. … Enforcing our immigration laws and removing illegal aliens is one big way President Trump is Making America Safe Again,” said Abigail Jackson, White House spokeswoman. “But the President can walk and chew gum at the same time – we’re holding all criminals accountable, whether they’re illegal aliens or American citizens.”

ICE and HSI did not respond to a request for comment.