(Ken Silva, Headline USA) The top official in charge of carrying out President Donald Trump’s deportation agenda has been reassigned amid concerns that the deportation effort isn’t moving fast enough.
Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement Friday that Caleb Vitello, the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, was “no longer in an administrative role, but is instead overseeing all field and enforcement operations: finding, arresting, and deporting illegal aliens, which is a major priority of the President and Secretary (Kristi) Noem.”
The statement made no mention of why Vitello, a career ICE official with more than two decades on the job, was reassigned or who his replacement will be. White House officials have expressed frustration with the pace of deportations of people in the country illegally.
An administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly, said the decision to reassign Vitello came from the Homeland Security secretary and not from the president.
According to Trump’s “border czar,” Tom Homan, some 14,000 immigrants have been arrested in Trump’s first three weeks. By contrast, the Biden administration arrested more than 21,000 unauthorized immigrants last November—though, again, government was also allowing illegals to flood into the country unabated during that time.
In the last 24 hours the US Border Patrol has encountered a total of 229 aliens across the entire southwest border. That is down from a high of over 11,000 a day under Biden. I started as a Border Patrol Agent in 1984 and I don’t remember the numbers ever being that low.…
— Thomas D. Homan (@RealTomHoman) February 17, 2025
Homan has justified the lower numbers on the grounds that there aren’t as many illegals being caught because few of them are even trying to cross the border. Homan reportedly said last week that illegal border crossings have dropped 92% since Jan. 20. Homan reiterated that point Monday morning on Twitter/X.
“In the last 24 hours the US Border Patrol has encountered a total of 229 aliens across the entire southwest border. That is down from a high of over 11,000 a day under Biden. I started as a Border Patrol Agent in 1984 and I don’t remember the numbers ever being that low,” he said. “President Trump promised a secure border and he is delivering.”
But apparently, Trump is unhappy behind the scenes. The removal of Vitello comes a little over one month into the new administration, showing how important immigration and carrying out mass deportations are to the Trump administration.
While defending the deportation numbers, Homan has expressed displeasure at the fact that ICE has released some of the illegals recently arrested. He recently said that will no longer be the case.
“The number of releases was unacceptable,” Homan said, “and that’s been fixed.”
According to NBC, the releases happened because ICE is funded for only 41,500 beds nationwide
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Ken Silva is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
