EXCLUSIVE — The Trump administration has begun to purge Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in offices in five major U.S. cities and fill some of those top posts with senior Border Patrol agents who will take over interior immigration enforcement in those regions, according to five sources familiar with the plans.
ICE leaders in Denver, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Phoenix, and San Diego were relieved of their jobs and moved to other posts within the federal agency last Friday, the Washington Examiner has learned.
Over the weekend, the Department of Homeland Security quietly started overhauling how it carries out its mass deportation operation in hopes of netting more arrests and ratcheting up its flashy, high-profile deportation campaign. The five cities are believed to be the first of more to come across ICE’s 24 field offices nationwide, according to three officials.
One official with firsthand knowledge of the plans, who asked to speak on the condition of anonymity, said the plan goes far beyond the five cities.
“It’s a lot more,” the official said.
A total of five sources said the five field office directors had been relieved of their duties and sent to other parts of the country to work. The DHS had plotted to fire all five field office directors but relented amid pushback from acting ICE Director Todd Lyons, who pleaded that they not be terminated.
“The administration wanted all these guys fired and Todd stepped in and said, ‘Let’s move them all to headquarters,'” the second official said. Lyons did not respond to a request for comment.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem would have the final say in personnel matters at ICE and Border Patrol. The DHS did not comment on Noem’s role in the personnel changes.
“I personally think this is being pushed by Noem and [DHS senior adviser Corey Lewandowski] because they don’t like [White House border czar Tom Homan]. I think Tom would have said, ‘No way,'” the second official said.
The decision to replace top federal employees from one agency with employees from an entirely different agency is unprecedented.
The DHS had initially dispatched Gregory Bovino, who oversees the Border Patrol’s El Centro, California, region, to help with immigration arrests in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Portland since the start of summer.
Bovino has become the face of the Trump administration’s crackdown on crime for his aggressive style, leading Border Patrol agents in a parade down the streets of Chicago’s business district and standing face to face with fiery rioters and protesters. He has also brought in Border Patrol agents to supplement ICE efforts.
Now, the second official explained, Bovino is not viewed as the exception to the norm, but the new standard for what is to come at ICE.
The five officials pushed out from their posts were Denver Field Office Director Robert Guadian, San Diego Field Office Director Patrick Divver, Phoenix Field Office Director John Cantu, Los Angeles Field Office Director Ernesto Santacruz, and Philadelphia’s acting Field Office Director Brian McShane. All five did not respond to requests for comment.
In Philadelphia, an ICE Homeland Security Investigations official, not Border Patrol, will take over for McShane. The DHS, ICE, and Border Patrol have not announced any personnel changes as of Monday afternoon.
Since President Donald Trump took office, his administration has pushed for a high level of arrests and deportations. At present, the Trump administration anticipates hitting 600,000 deportations by January 2026.
In May, White House deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller pushed ICE to arrest 3,000 illegal immigrants per day, which would work out to more than 1 million arrests in a year.
In a heated exchange at ICE’s Washington headquarters between Miller, Noem, and ICE leadership in May, the administration officials berated ICE for not doing more to arrest illegal immigrants.
But those high figures have been impossible to achieve as ICE has simultaneously focused on arresting the “worst of the worst,” often a one-by-one process.
Now, DHS is bringing in regional chiefs and supervisors normally stationed at the nation’s borders to carry out immigration arrests inside the country. Normally, Border Patrol’s authority only extends 100 miles into the U.S. from the border, though it is not clear what jurisdiction agents have to be enforcing immigration law in cities.
In mid-October, Border Patrol Chief Mike Banks told the Washington Examiner that agents were already assisting ICE in 27 cities nationwide, far beyond the two where agents have mostly been seen this fall: Chicago and Portland.
TRUMP IS BUILDING A SMART WALL ON THE BORDER. HERE’S WHAT THAT MEANS
DHS, ICE, and Customs and Border Protection did not confirm or deny the personnel changes.
“While we have no personnel changes to announce at this time, the Trump administration remains laser focused on delivering results and removing violent criminal illegal aliens from this country,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin wrote in an email Monday.
