President-elect Donald Trump and his “border czar” Tom Homan vowed to “flood” sanctuary cities with agents, meaning many US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers (ICE) who spent the last four years stuck behind a desk processing illegal migrants are preparing to get back into the field.
The federal agency has a total workforce of about 21,000 employees, which includes non-law enforcement personnel who handle administration work, according to a Department of Homeland Security budget overview.
It is unclear exactly how many of the total law enforcement personnel will be reassigned from pushing paperwork, however, sources from a West Coast field office and an East Coast field office told The New York Post that an estimated 60-70% of their officers are currently stuck behind desks.
ICE sources told The Post that rank-and-file are excited to be “catching criminals that Biden let roam freely in the country for the last four years without any consequences.” Sources say the new administration will need to train officers who have not yet had field experience making arrests under the Biden-Harris administration.
Another issue at hand for the incoming Trump administration is that “units have been depleted” said one ICE source. “The personnel have to be there to carry out these ‘mass deportation.’ Right now, a lot of units have been depleted.”
Additionally, many ICE positions are vacant because funding is needed in order to fill them. “They’re not able to fill them because they don’t have funding for them…they really defunded us without really saying it” added sources, referring to the Biden-Harris administration.
Homan said that in his first week on the job he plans to visit both the southern and northern borders to meet with Border Patrol and ICE personnel to get a sense of their greatest needs.
The Post adds that Homan “also indicated that he would prioritize making arrests of illegal migrants who pose threats to national security and public safety, and. Bring back worksite raids, which the Biden-Harris administration halted in October 2021.”
