Trump Gives DEA, ATF, USMS, Deportation Power To Aid With Crackdown

As the Trump administration ramps up its efforts to curb illegal immigration, the president is continuing to sign a series of executive orders paving the way for his mass deportation efforts. In the latest batch, the new president is seeking to expand deportation powers to a plethora of federal agents to help these operations happen swiftly.

In a new memo obtained by The Wall Street Journal and sent by acting Homeland Security Secretary Benjamine Huffman, the DHS grants immigration-enforcement authority to several agencies at the Justice Department, including the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the U.S. Marshals Service.

The document emphasizes that Federal Bureau of Investigation agents already possess immigration-arresting powers, known as Title 8 authority, despite the fact that FBI agents tend to stay away from these operations except where it intersects with national security and other investigations.

Amid the new directives, administration officials are planning for the Justice Department to cooperate with the promised mass deportation campaign by lending some agents, even though the mem doesn't directly require them to, a person familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal.

The recent measure is one of several executive orders signed by the president to shut down border crossings and kick off what he promised to be the largest deportation operation in American history.

According to a fact sheet released by the White House, Trump signed an executive order that "suspends the physical entry of aliens engaged in an invasion of the United States through the southern border."

The order directs the Departments of Homeland Security, Justice and State to "take all necessary action to immediately repel, repatriate and remove illegal aliens across the southern border of the United States."

Similarly, just hours after he took office, CBP One, a Biden administration app that was used by migrants to schedule appointments at southwest border ports of entry, shut down and existing appointments were canceled, closing down a key avenue for migrants to enter the country legally.

At the same time, on Tuesday, the Trump administration published in the federal register a notice to expand "expedited removal"— which allows U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to deport migrants without due process— to any undocumented immigrants who have crossed the border within the last two years, NBC News reports.

But despite promises and executive orders, as of Wednesday evening, deportations did not appear to have drastically increased. Border czar Tom Homan said on Fox News on Wednesday morning that ICE agents had arrested 308 migrants over the past 24 hours. In September, the latest month for which ICE data is available, 282 migrants were arrested by the agency on average per day.