Trump Reassigns Half of ICE Field Directors

Roughly half of ICE’s 25 field office directors — at least 12 managers — have been reassigned or removed in a leadership overhaul that shifted chiefs in cities including Denver, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Phoenix and San Diego. About half of the replacements are current or retired Customs and Border Protection/Border Patrol officials, embedding Border Patrol veterans into ICE domestic operations to pursue broader, faster enforcement sweeps. Officials say the changes were driven by White House and DHS pressure to meet aggressive arrest and deportation targets and by internal friction between enforcement factions; acting ICE Director Todd Lyons reportedly pushed back against outright firings, producing reassignments instead. The staffing shift has coincided with more aggressive on‑the‑ground activity — including unusual weekend ICE check‑ins and detentions in Stockton that drew protests and temporarily closed an office — raising concerns among advocates about mass enforcement tactics. DHS has declined to formally announce the personnel moves while praising the administration’s focus on removing violent criminal illegal aliens and says it has deported more than half a million people under Trump as the administration pushes for an accelerated pace of removals.