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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. Like others interviewed
for this article, they requested anonymity in order to share sensitive information.

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.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/ice-operation-trump- focus-immigration-reshape-federal-law-enforcement-rcna193494

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