ICE officials ousted amid White House order to triple number of daily arrests

Two senior ICE officials are being removed from their positions amid White House pressure for dramatically higher arrest numbers of undocumented migrants.

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem demanded that agents arrest 3,000 people daily during a heated meeting at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) headquarters in Washington, D.C., on May 21, sources told Axios. Some attendees reportedly worried about their jobs if targets were not met.

The aggressive push, which would triple the current rate of arrests, comes despite detention facilities already exceeding capacity, with nearly 49,000 people in ICE custody while Congress has funded only around 47,000 beds. Additionally, Miller and Noem threatened to dismiss the bottom 10% of regional ICE officials based on their arrest numbers, sources told Reuters.

The pressure reflects a major enforcement shift as May data reportedly showed 11,367 migrants were arrested by ICE compared to 2,415 from border patrol — a reversal from May 2024 when border arrests far exceeded interior enforcement.

Kenneth Genalo, who heads ICE’s enforcement and removal division, will retire, while Robert Hammer, who heads the agency’s investigative arm, will be reassigned, ICE announced on Thursday, among other changes. These follow earlier shakeups in February and come as deportation numbers have remained roughly equivalent to the Biden administration’s final year despite Trump’s mass deportation promises.

The White House and Congress are now working to provide $147 billion in additional immigration funding over the next decade to support expanded operations.