High-Ranking ICE Officials Demoted With Trump Reportedly Frustrated With Pace Of Deportations

Two top Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials have been demoted as President Donald Trump is reportedly frustrated with the current pace of deportations.

Concretely, Russell Hott and Peter Berg, officials in the enforcement division, have been reassigned. Todd Lyons, who led the ICE field office in Boston, is not the acting head of ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations, NBC News reported.

The shakeup comes after Trump reportedly told aides that the current pace of deportations is "too f---ing low," according to NewsNation. The outlet quoted an aide saying that even though border czar Tom Homan and ICE are "doing a great job," they "have got to do more." Trump also said on Sunday that he supported Homan's work. The outlet detailed that ICE averaged 787 arrests per day in the last week of January.

The figure is lower than the daily quota ICE was reportedly given, which stands between 1,200 and 1,500 individuals a day. NBC News reported in late January that once source said the quota is meant as motivation, while another said that agents may be penalized for not meeting it. An ICE official speaking anonymously to The Washington Post said the agency's existing list of criminal suspects was long enough to prioritize public safety threats while meeting quotas.

Since ICE has about 5,500 officers nationwide working on immigration enforcement, a staffing level that has remained roughly flat for the past decade, the administration has reassigned personnel from the FBI, U.S. Marshals, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

The agency has also faced snags as a result of another challenge: leaks. Both Homan and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem are pointing toward the FBI over leaks regarding upcoming "large scale" ICE immigration raids in Los Angeles. The development came shortly after ICE postponed a raid in Aurora, Colorado, after media reported about the operation, claiming it was putting agents' security at risk.

Homan said he is moving toward finding the person responsible for the latest leak and will make sure criminal charges are pressed. "We're sending a strong message. It's not just giving the bad guys a heads up so they can escape apprehension, giving gangs a heads up so we can't arrest them. You're also putting officers lives at risk. It's only a matter of time before we walk into a place where a bad guy doesn't care and ambush them," he said.

The leaked document, obtained by the LA Times, detailed plans to conduct a "large scale" raid in Los Angeles by the end of February. The operation, led by ICE, was set to focus on undocumented immigrants with pending orders of removal. The outlet quoted an official saying the agency needed "more bodies."