WASHINGTON — In mid-May, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, frustrated over what he saw as numbers of arrests and deportations of unauthorized immigrants that were too low, berated and threatened to fire senior Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials if they did not begin detaining 3,000 migrants a day, according to two sources who spoke to attendees.
Miller also threatened to fire leaders of field offices posting the bottom 10% of arrest numbers monthly, the two sources said.
Weeks later, ICE is launching the Trump administration’s largest immigration crackdown.
“Operation At Large,” a nationwide, ICE-led plan already underway to ramp up arrests of unauthorized immigrants, includes more than 5,000 personnel from across federal law enforcement agencies and up to 21,000 National Guard troops, according to an operation plan described to NBC News by three sources with knowledge of the personnel allocations who detailed the previously unreported plans.
Drawing those numbers from other law enforcement agencies, though, has been a source of tension among some officials, who feel they have been taken off other core national security missions, according to three additional law enforcement and military officials.
It is the latest example of how President Donald Trump’s push for mass deportations is reshaping federal law enforcement as officials shift resources toward immigration-related cases — including nonviolent administrative offenses — leaving less time and attention for other types of criminal investigations.
The plan calls for using 3,000 ICE agents, including 1,800 from Homeland Security Investigations, which generally investigates transnational crimes and is not typically involved in arresting noncriminal immigrants; 2,000 Justice Department employees from the FBI, the U.S. Marshals Service and the Drug Enforcement Administration; and 500 employees from Customs and Border Protection. It also includes 250 IRS agents, some of whom may be used to provide information on the whereabouts of immigrants using tax information, while others would have the authority to make arrests, according to the operation plan.
The Department of Homeland Security has also requested the use of 21,000 National Guard members to provide support in ICE operations, according to two additional sources familiar with the request, though that number has yet to be approved by the Defense Department or by governors who would be deploying their state’s units, multiple sources cautioned.
Abigail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman, responding to the Miller meeting, said, “Keeping President Trump’s promise to deport illegal aliens is something the Administration takes seriously. We are committed to aggressively and efficiently removing illegal aliens from the United States, and ensuring our law enforcement officers have the resources necessary to do so. The safety of the American people depends upon it.”
Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said, “Under Secretary Noem, we are delivering on President Trump’s and the American people’s mandate to arrest and deport criminal illegal aliens and make America safe.”
More than a dozen current and former law enforcement sources described other changes inside federal law enforcement driven by the Trump administration’s focus on immigration.
At the FBI, where it was once unusual for special agents to go on immigration-related law enforcement operations, according to multiple current and former law enforcement officials, field offices around the country have been ordered to assign significantly more agents to assist with ICE operations to arrest people on administrative immigration warrants.
Misdemeanor cases for border crossings are regularly appearing in federal court, a rarity in recent years. Justice Department teams focused on other issues are being disbanded, with members being dispersed to teams focused on immigration and other administration priorities.
And prosecutors say cases without immigration components have stalled or are moving more slowly, according to documents seen by NBC News and conversations with six current and former prosecutors and a senior FBI official, who described how immigration is now a central part of discussions around whether to pursue cases.
“Immigration status is now question No. 1 in terms of charging decisions,” an assistant U.S. attorney said. “Is this person a documented immigrant? Is this person an undocumented immigrant? Is this person a citizen? Are they somehow deportable? What is their immigration status? And the answer to that question is now largely driving our charging decisions.”
At least one U.S. attorney’s office abandoned a potential federal prosecution of someone who prosecutors felt was dangerous because the case against the person lacked an immigration component, an email obtained by NBC News showed. The office instead left the case to state prosecutors.
Reorganizing federal law enforcement to prioritize immigration could have sweeping long-term effects on the U.S. justice system. The Trump administration set early quotas for immigration arrests and has marshaled resources to go far beyond early statements about focusing only on deporting violent criminals, as well as invoking laws that have not previously been used for immigration enforcement, like the Alien Enemies Act.
Prioritizing immigration also means shifting finite resources in ways that de-prioritize other cases. Last month, FBI field offices around the country shifted agents from other beats to immigration enforcement, according to current and former FBI officials and memos obtained by NBC News. A senior FBI official wrote in a memo to bureau managers that the Justice Department “expects a significant increase in the number of agents participating in immigration enforcement operations.”
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement that “immigration security is national security,” pointing to the Egyptian national accused of launching an antisemitic attack in Colorado on Sunday. The man entered the United States on a valid visa before he filed for asylum, after which the visa expired. Jackson argued the administration’s moves to prioritize immigration enforcement will not carry an opportunity cost.
“Enforcing our immigration laws and removing illegal aliens is one big way President Trump is ‘Making America Safe Again.’ But the president can walk and chew gum at the same time,” Jackson continued. “We’re holding all criminals accountable, whether they’re illegal aliens or American citizens. That’s why nationwide murder rates have plummeted, fugitives from the FBI’s most wanted list have been captured, and police officers are empowered to do their jobs, unlike under the Biden Administration’s soft-on-crime regime.”
(Falling murder rates predate the second Trump administration, with rates rising during and immediately after the Covid pandemic before dropping in each of 2022, 2023 and the first half of 2024, according to FBI data.)
How immigration is affecting other law enforcement operations
Still, federal law enforcement officials who spoke to NBC News said the increased focus on cases with an immigration angle is pulling resources from other law enforcement priorities.
“There is such a priority on making immigration arrests that it takes longer to get answers on anything else. Something that used to be resolved in a matter of days now takes weeks,” a law enforcement official said.
The shift in resources affects not only the type of cases taken but also the type of personnel involved in immigration raids. The FBI is almost always the agency leading the charge in joint investigations, but it has traditionally avoided getting involved in enforcement operations that involve only immigration enforcement, current and former officials confirmed.
Those operations, which are led by ICE, involve noncriminal administrative removal warrants for immigration offenses, not the type of criminal warrants the FBI typically serves, three officials said.
Since Trump took office, the FBI has routinely joined ICE operations. Some FBI employees have received guidance to minimize the actions they take during immigration-related raids and, particularly, to avoid entering into homes when they join ICE operations, four current and former law enforcement officials said.
The Trump administration is also deliberating over creating a task force led by a senior leader from the Department of Homeland Security and a senior leader from the Justice Department, according to an undated draft implementation guide reviewed by NBC News and a person familiar with the deliberations. It is unclear whether that version is the most current draft under consideration.
The Homeland Security Task Force would work in the FBI and ICE field offices across the country to “identify and target for prosecution transnational criminal organizations engaged in diverse criminal schemes,” the draft said. It continues: “In addition to the prosecution of the above criminal violations, the mission of the HSTF is further to facilitate the removal of criminal aliens from the United States.”
The draft plan raises questions about which additional federal resources could be pulled in solely to focus on immigration. It says the new task force would work with the National Counterterrorism Center, the U.S. intelligence community and the Pentagon to “assist with targeting and investigations.”
Meanwhile, it is unclear whether or when the shifting resources and reorganization will result in the Trump administration’s hitting its desired deportation numbers, like the 3,000-person daily quota Miller demanded in the mid-May meeting. ICE no longer posts comprehensive daily arrest statistics, but on social media, it has posted details of at least 350 arrests since May 26.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
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