ICE officials ousted amid demands for more immigrant arrests
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Kenneth Genalo and Robert Hammer. Photos: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement website
Two top officials at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have been ousted from leadership as the White House ramps up the pressure on the agency to arrest an unprecedented number of immigrants, five sources familiar with the situation tell Axios.
Why it matters: The changes come a week after top Trump aide Stephen Miller and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem demanded that ICE seek to arrest 3,000 people a day — triple what agents were arresting in the early days of the administration.
Driving the news: The ousted officials are Kenneth Genalo, ICE's enforcement and removal director, and Robert Hammer, the Department of Homeland Security's investigations director who has handled particularly complex cases involving criminal immigrants.
- Genalo is retiring but will still serve as a special government employee, sources said. Hammer is being reassigned to a different leadership position.
- In the week since Miller and Noem called on ICE officials to step up arrests, ICE has failed to reach 3,000 daily arrests. Agents did bring in 1,600 the day before the leadership changes — a substantial rise but not close to Miller and Noem's goal, people familiar with the agency's internal data said.
Several sources told Axios the leadership changes reflect higher-ups' frustration with the arrest numbers at a time when the White House is focused on President Trump's goal of deporting a million unauthorized immigrants.
- But one source said the arrest statistics weren't considered in decision making and that conclusions were being drawn from last week's meeting with Miller.
Flashback: It's not the first shakeup at ICE, which has been under increasing pressure over the White House's deportation ambitions.
- Earlier this year Noem reassigned ICE's director and deputy director.
- They were replaced with ICE veteran Todd Lyons and Madison Sheehan, who was previously a political staffer of Noem's. Some insiders believe Lyons' job might also be at risk now.
- ICE has not had a Senate-confirmed director since Barack Obama was in the White House.
What they're saying: "I think there's great leadership at ICE. Todd Lyons, I've known him for years. He was probably the best field director we had," Trump border czar Tom Homan told Axios on Thursday.
- "There are 25 field office directors across the country and they all respect Todd. Todd's the right guy to be the director," Homan added.
- Homan declined to comment on the leadership changes, saying he was unaware of the reasons behind the reassignments.
Homan, an acting director of ICE during Trump's first term, said it helps agents across the country to have a director who has risen through the agency's ranks.
- "They're just looking for guidance, and they're looking for cover," Homan said. "So when they're out there arresting illegal aliens, and the press comes after them, the NGOs come after them or the ACLU comes after them, you got a leader that's going to support them."
