WASHINGTON 鈥� Demands from the White House for a drastic increase in arrests of people who have entered the country illegally have pushed immigration officials into overdrive to fulfill President Donald Trump鈥檚 pledge of mass deportations.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement is carrying out workplace raids across the country such as the one in the garment district of Los Angeles last week that kicked off protests and a vast federal response. The agency is staggering shifts so agents are available seven days a week to try to meet arrest goals and asking criminal investigators who usually focus on issues like human trafficking to help identify targets. It is also asking the public to call in tips to report illegal immigration.
ICE鈥檚 work is being aided by a new mapping app that locates people with deportation orders who can be swiftly expelled, drawn from data housed in agencies across the government, according to documents obtained by The New York Times.
鈥淚 said it from Day 1, if you鈥檙e in the country illegally, you鈥檙e not off the table,鈥� Thomas D. Homan, Trump鈥檚 border czar, said in an interview. 鈥淪o, we鈥檙e opening that aperture up.鈥�
Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, has been deeply engaged in the effort behind the scenes, meeting with top ICE officials in recent weeks and scrutinizing the numbers, according to people familiar with his involvement.
The intense pressure by top administration officials creates an atmosphere that elevates the potential for mistakes at a time when officers and agents are being pushed to make consequential decisions, former officials said.
鈥淵ou鈥檙e going to have people who are being pushed to the limit, who in a rush may not get things right, including information on a person鈥檚 status,鈥� said Sarah Salda帽a, who served as ICE鈥檚 director during the Obama administration. 鈥淎ll of that takes time and effort, and this push on numbers 鈥� exclusive of whether or not the job is being done right 鈥� is very concerning.鈥�
White House officials say the measures the administration is taking are necessary.
鈥淜eeping President Trump鈥檚 promise to deport illegal aliens is something the administration takes seriously,鈥� Abigail Jackson, a spokesperson, said in a statement. 鈥淭he violent riots in Los Angeles, including attacks on federal law enforcement agents carrying out basic deportation operations, underscore why removing illegal aliens is so important.鈥�
The political stakes are high: Trump was swept into office for a second time on a platform built around his pledge to crack down on illegal immigration and promises of mass deportations as soon as he took office.
Since Trump returned to office, more than 200,000 people in the United States without legal status have been sent back to their home country or a third country, a fraction of the 1.4 million people who faced deportation orders by the end of last year, according to internal government data obtained by the Times.
Miller, a staunch advocate of tightening America鈥檚 borders, said on Fox News in late May that ICE would set a goal of a 鈥渕inimum鈥� of 3,000 arrests a day, figures never before seen and 10 times the daily arrests during the Biden administration. Since Jan. 21, ICE has arrested more than 100,000 people suspected of being in the country illegally, according to data obtained by the Times.
During a meeting with agency leaders late last month at ICE鈥檚 headquarters, Miller reviewed the agency鈥檚 arrest rate and discussed ways to ratchet it up. At one point, he encouraged ICE leaders to target apparent gang members with noticeable tattoos, according to people familiar with his comments.
鈥淗e wasn鈥檛 putting a specific quota on us but just going over the numbers and making sure that we鈥檙e utilizing all of our resources to make the arrests out there,鈥� said Garrett Ripa, the head of the Miami ICE office, who at the time was a top official overseeing the agency鈥檚 deportation operations. ICE officials asked Miller for more resources, such as extra transportation help, to help meet the ambitious goals, he said.
Another official with direct knowledge of the meeting, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the discussion, said that Miller asked those in the room if they thought they could hit 1 million deportations this year.
Former and current agency officials say that the high expectations have sapped morale in some quarters 鈥� and created a pressure keg.
鈥淭here is a constant state of anxiety,鈥� said Jason Houser, a former ICE chief of staff during the Biden administration. 鈥淭hey understand they are playing Stephen Miller鈥檚 game. This isn鈥檛 about public safety or national security; this is about hitting a quota number. That鈥檚 it.鈥�
Some ICE officers, however, said they welcomed the intense focus on their work.
鈥淚t鈥檚 something that I鈥檓 invested in, so I don鈥檛 feel like it鈥檚 a bad thing,鈥� said Carlos Nu帽ez, a supervising deportation officer in Florida, adding that he finally felt he could do his job the way it was meant to be done.
鈥淲e just have so much work that there鈥檚 not enough hours in the day, to be honest with you, just to get it done,鈥� he said. 鈥淢y teams, all these guys you see here, they鈥檙e working seven days a week, working around the clock. I haven鈥檛 had a day off in several months already.鈥�
Ripa said many agents are working staggered shifts to assure the entire week is covered. (A Homeland Security official said the use of staggered shifts is not new.)
The Times recently accompanied Nu帽ez and other ICE officials in Miami as they conducted a series of arrests. Over the course of several hours, a group of more than 10 officers 鈥� which at certain points included FBI agents and an official from the State Department 鈥� tracked down and detained a total of three migrants.
In one case, a Honduran man who was the brother of an ICE target was arrested when he happened to show up to drive him to work 鈥� an example of how the agency is making collateral arrests to increase its numbers.
That is the mandate right now, Homan said.
鈥淚f they鈥檙e out there looking for a target and they find the target and he is with other people in the country illegally, they need to be taken into custody,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e not walking away from the illegal alien.鈥�
The Miami arrests underscored one of the main challenges ICE faces in boosting its arrests: It is often painstaking, low-yield work. Officers spend extensive time doing surveillance, sending multiple officers to stake out a location for hours. Sometimes, an address is old or incorrect.
So in recent weeks, ICE has begun to hit workplaces such as clubs, restaurants and factories across the country, executing raids aimed at netting larger numbers. Officers have descended upon immigration courthouses, in coordination with prosecutors, to arrest migrants who show up for scheduled court dates.
The agency is also asking the public to use a tip line to report illegal immigration. In May, officers arrested five men in a Baltimore parking lot based on a phone tip. Video of the arrest was posted online by ICE with the caption, 鈥淲hen you call our Tip Line, we listen!鈥�
Homan said such arrests were allowed if there was 鈥渞easonable suspicion鈥� that someone was in the country illegally.
In some offices, investigators who usually focus on issues like human trafficking have been asked to help drive up the arrest numbers. One Homeland Security official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal tactics, said that some undercover special agents responsible for investigating online sex trafficking have begun setting up in-person meetings with people suspected of prostitution to potentially arrest them on immigration charges.
The agency has also turned to higher-tech solutions. A new mapping app allows agents and officers to see areas around the country with large numbers of people under deportation orders, according to Ripa and documents obtained by the Times. An early version of the app was dubbed Alien Tracker, or Atrac.
The project was launched with help from members of the Department of Government Efficiency, which was led by billionaire Elon Musk until he left his government role last month, according to Ripa. 鈥淚 know in the infancy stages of Atrac, they were an integral part of it,鈥� Ripa said. The White House declined to comment on the app.
The software, which is accessible on mobile phones, maps the location of migrants with deportation orders across the country, and even allows officers to zero in on those with certain criminal convictions, he said.
鈥淭he heat map shows where there are executable final orders of removal around the nation. And that officer then can just zoom in on those areas,鈥� Ripa said.
The app contains information about more than 700,000 people, drawn from data not just at ICE, but agencies across the government. That includes the FBI; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the U.S. Marshals Service; and the Social Security Administration, according to the documents obtained by the Times.
The app will 鈥渆ventually allow for the centralized management of all interior enforcement priorities,鈥� the documents say. That would include data from the departments of Housing and Urban Development, Labor and Health and Human Services, and the Internal Revenue Service, according to the documents.
The consolidation of government data to track migrants through the app comes after Musk aides moved aggressively to try to tap into streams of information held by different agencies. Career officials raised objections to the efforts, which they said violated privacy and security protocols, and labor unions and watchdog groups sued to halt the efforts.
Information about each immigrant in the app is available on a baseball-card-style format, according to the documents. Officers are required to log the outcome of each encounter they have with a target.
Despite the tech wizardry, some ICE agents have found the addresses in the map are erroneous or out of date, according to a Homeland Security official.
The agency faces other challenges in communities like Los Angeles, where a court order issued in 2024 blocks officers from knocking on doors with the intent to arrest people. An expert for the groups suing the government over the practice found that such arrests, in which ICE knocks on a door with the intent to arrest the person inside the home, accounted for more than a quarter of all residential arrests made by ICE.
In late May, Bill Essayli, the acting U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, directed Justice Department law enforcement agents to take over the door-knocking tasks, according to a document obtained by the Times. A spokesperson for Essayli confirmed the initiative.
There have been some signs that ICE鈥檚 push is yielding results. The Homeland Security Department said in a statement over the weekend that ICE had 鈥渁rrested 2,000 aliens a day鈥� last week. Trump administration officials pointed to the figures as a sign that their crackdown was working.
But in recent days, the numbers fell off again, according to data obtained by the Times. On Thursday, ICE arrested around 1,400 people. On Friday, the total fell to more than 1,200. On Saturday, the number dropped even further, to about 700.
Homan has remained undeterred, even amid the protests in Los Angeles.
鈥淲e will do this immigration operation,鈥� he said on a show hosted by right-wing activist Laura Loomer. 鈥淲e鈥檙e going to do it every single day across this country, including LA. You鈥檙e not going to stop us, so I guess this is game on.鈥�
This article originally appeared in . 漏 2025 The New York Times
