Trump’s mass deportation agenda is at a crossroads with the Homeland Security shake-up

WASHINGTON– The Department of Homeland Security will soon be under new leadership, an opportunity to reset President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda or double down on his campaign promise to carry out the largest deportation operation in American history.

The White House political director recently encouraged party lawmakers at a retreat at the Republican president’s golf club in Florida to focus on cracking down on criminal immigration, a linchpin of the mass deportation agenda he ran on. House Speaker Mike Johnson said the aggressive moves created a “hiccup” for the party, which is now embarking on a “course correction.”

Yet all indications are that Trump’s mass deportation operation is not stagnating but escalating, with billions of dollars spent to hire Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, build detention warehouses and meet the administration’s goal of rounding up and expelling some 1 million immigrants from the United States this year.

“We’re at an interesting moment where this has been an inflection point: The public has finally understood what mass detention and deportation means,” said Sarah Mehta, who follows the issue at the American Civil Liberties Union.

“This is not an agency that’s slowing down,” she said. “They are really moving forward with some of the cruelest policies.”

White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said the president’s policies have expelled immigrants from the United States, either through forced expulsions or on their own, and closed the U.S.-Mexico border.

“No one is changing the administration’s immigration enforcement agenda,” she said.

These questions place homeland security at a crossroads. Secretary of State Kristi Noem is on her way out, and Trump’s nominee to replace her, Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma, is appearing this week for Senate confirmation hearings.

After intense evictions in Minneapolis and other cities — and the deaths of at least three U.S. citizens at the hands of officers — Democratic lawmakers are refusing to provide routine funding unless the department changes its policy.

At the same time, those who believe Trump won the White House with his mass deportation agenda are disappointed that the administration failed to meet its goals last year and insist he must do better.

“There’s been a lot of talk in Congress and now the White House about sort of backing away from President Trump and candidate Trump’s promise of mass deportations,” said Rosemary Jenks, co-founder of the Immigration Accountability Project, which advocates for deportations.

“We think now is an opportunity,” she said. “We need to increase the number of evictions.”

The debate unfolds as the United States, celebrating its 250th anniversary, contrasts its founding as a nation of immigrants with images of masked federal agents smashing car windows and arresting people suspected of being in the United States without proper legal status.

The Republican-controlled Congress set aside some $170 billion in last year’s tax cut to fuel the effort, more than tripling ICE’s budget.

Republican Sen. Eric Schmitt of Missouri, in a fiery speech, hit back at Democrats’ proposed restrictions. “This question about deporting illegal immigrants was on the ballot. President Trump was not shy,” he said. “And the American people have supported the idea that we are going to deport people. »

However, signs of cracks are appearing within the Trump coalition. Some Republicans prefer what’s called a more humane approach and share their views with Mullin.

Sen. Ron Johnson, Republican of Wisconsin, considered a staunch advocate against illegal immigration, said that in his state, immigrants milk most of the dairy cows, and he has heard from restaurant groups that rely on immigrants to fill their jobs.

“Can we just go back and get all these people who came in here illegally to go home? he asked.

“In terms of practical implementation, it’s much more difficult – particularly, in fact, when you realize that many of these people, most of them, came here looking for opportunity, looking for freedom,” he said. “They work, support their families, contribute to organizations and the community.”

The Mass Deportation Coalition, a group of conservative organizations including the Heritage Foundation and Erik Prince, founder of the security firm Blackwater, was formed recently to keep the administration on track.

He calls last year’s focus on deporting violent criminal immigrants “phase one” and says “phase two” should focus this year on deporting immigrants beyond those with violent criminal histories.

Mark Morgan, who served as acting head of ICE and Customs and Border Protection during Trump’s first term and is part of the coalition, said that doesn’t mean roving patrols in Home Depot parking lots. It’s a strategic enforcement focused on immigrants in the workplace, those who have overstayed their visas and have already been ordered deported by a judge, he said.

But they face opposition within the Republican Party, Morgan said, particularly from those who want to limit evictions to only felons and from business groups who want to relax workplace enforcement.

“The Republicans who say that their definition of targeted repression is only criminal, they are wrong. They are on the wrong side,” he said.

“That’s why you see some of the base getting really apoplectic because they’re saying, ‘Wait a minute. Are you only talking about taking out criminals now?’ This is not what you promised,” Morgan said.

Proponents of deportation as well as those working to protect immigrants’ rights say the Trump administration’s best chance of achieving its goals is to create an environment so unwelcoming for immigrants that they leave them — often called self-deportation.

The ACLU’s Mehta expects the administration to step up efforts to end temporary authorizations that allow immigrants to stay in the United States — particularly refugees and asylum seekers — while their cases move through the system. She called it a “deliberate attempt to make people undocumented – to take away their legal status – and then be able to impose sanctions on them.”

Sen. Alex Padilla, Democrat of California, said he fears more nonviolent immigrants will be rounded up to fill new warehouses being outfitted as the Trump administration tries to meet its deportation goals.

This is unacceptable, he said, and is among “the key questions that Senator Mullin will have to answer during his confirmation hearing.”