Trump admin's 3,000 ICE arrests per day quota is taking focus off criminals and ‘killing morale': insiders
The Trump administration's mandate to arrest 3,000 illegal migrants per day is forcing ICE agents to deprioritize going after dangerous criminals and targets with deportation orders, insiders warn.
Instead, federal immigration officers are spending more time rounding up people off the streets, sources said.
'All that matters is numbers, pure numbers. Quantity over quality,' one Immigrations and Customs Enforcement insider told The Post.
9 Immigrations and Customs Enforcement insiders told The Post that the Trump administration's arrest quotas are 'killing morale' within the law enforcement agency.
Photo by DavidThe policy is also 'unmaintainable' at current staffing levels, and it's 'killing morale,' sources added.
And the agency is burning through its budget at a break-neck pace — with ICE already $1 billion over budget, Axios reported Monday.
On Sunday, Trump doubled down on his plans to deport illegal immigrants, saying ICE agents would carry out the 'single largest Mass Deportation Program in History' in Democrat-led cities like New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.
Agents are desperate to meet the White House's high expectations, leading them to leave some dangerous criminal illegal migrants on the streets, and instead look for anyone they can get their hands on at the local Home Depot or bus stop, ICE insiders said.
'These quotas are undermining the agency's ability to focus on the really serious criminal aliens,' said John Sandweg, a former acting ICE director under President Barack Obama.
9 The Trump administration has pushed ICE to make 3,000 arrests per day.
AFP via Getty Images
The quotas force ICE agents to let illegal migrant gangbangers and criminals fly under the radar because the feds no longer have the time for the days-long investigations it takes to hunt them down, said ICE insiders and Sandweg.
'The transnational gang members, the convicted felons, the bad actors make it hard on ICE find them. They don't just sit there and make it easy, they don't show up in a Home Depot parking lot, hanging around,' said Sandweg.
He added: 'They have no choice but to pivot away from that guy because you could sink a hundred hours to get that gang member and you'd get one arrest, but it's a really good arrest and made a huge impact on public safety.'
9 Federal agents escort detainees after nabbing them after their immigration check-ins in New York City on June 4, 2205.
Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
9 Federal agents detain a person outside an immigration courtroom at the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building in New York on June 10, 2025.
AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura
White House advisor Stephen Miller instructed ICE to focus on easier targets as he ordered the agency to ramp up its arrest numbers, the Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month.
In one meeting, he said he could sweep Home Depots and 7-Eleven convenience stores and immediately collar 30 illegal migrants in Washington, DC, according to the newspaper, which quoted sources in the room.
'Who here thinks they can do it?' Miller reportedly said.
The Trump administration initially instituted a 1,800-per-day-quota in January.
But ICE insiders say the quota is doing more harm than good.
'We are working constantly at an unmaintainable pace. It takes hours to process one person who is illegally in the country and to be told that what you're doing still isn't good enough is killing agents' morale,' said an ICE source.
Another ICE source fumed that 'it gets harder and harder' as the days go by as agents are moving from 'targeted operations' aimed at catching criminals and migrants with removal orders to now hitting up 'people in the street' — like the raid on a Los Angeles-area Home Depot earlier this month, which drew massive protests and riots.
DHS revealed on Monday that 75% of the migrants arrested in Trump's first 100 days had either convictions or pending criminal charges.
It's a major shift from the early promises of Trump's border czar Tom Homan, who pledged that the mass deportation operation would 'concentrate on the worst of the worst,' days after the president's election victory.
9 Federal agents clash with protesters near a Home Depot in Paramount, Calf. after ICE raids on June 7, 2025.
ALLISON DINNER/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
Trump at first seemed to back away from the expansion of the mass deportation effort, recognizing that it was taking its toll on the agricultural and hospitality industries.
In a post on Truth Social last Thursday, Trump acknowledged that his deportation campaign was hurting the farming and hospitality industries.
That same day, ICE officers across the country received an order to 'please hold on all work site enforcement investigations/operations on agriculture (including aquaculture and meat packing plants), restaurants and operating hotels,' according to the New York Times.
9 ICE agents chasing migrant workers at a farm in Oxnard, Calif. on June 10, 2025.
ABC7
9 ICE agents conducting a raid in a meat a Glenn Valley Foods meat production plant in Omaha on June 10, 2025.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement/Handout via REUTERS.
'Our great Farmers and people in the Hotel and Leisure business have been stating that our very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, long time workers away from them, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace,' Trump wrote.
'This is not good. We must protect our Farmers, but get the CRIMINALS OUT OF THE USA. Changes are coming,' he said.
The Trump administration backed away from the pause days later — with Trump posting about stepping up raids in sanctuary cities.
9 Federal agents escorting detainees to vehicles in New York City on June 4, 2025.
Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
'I want ICE, Border Patrol, and our Great and Patriotic Law Enforcement Officers, to FOCUS on our crime ridden and deadly Inner Cities, and those places where Sanctuary Cities play such a big role,' he posted Sunday. 'You don't hear about Sanctuary Cities in our Heartland!'
Homeland Security officials directed agency leadership in a call Monday to resume raids at those businesses — which have higher proportions of illegal migrants in their workforce — following the short pause, according to the Washington Post and CNN.
Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told The Post that the agency is 'delivering on President Trump's and the American people's mandate to arrest and deport criminal illegal aliens to make America safe.'
'Secretary Noem unleashed ICE to target the worst of the worst,' she said, adding that 75% of ICE's arrests have been illegal migrants who have criminal convictions or pending charges.
'The shocking story here is that instead of deporting many heinous criminals, the Biden Administration chose to RELEASE these known public safety threats into our communities instead of deporting them. President Trump and Secretary Noem will always fight for the victims of illegal alien crime and their families,' said McLaughlin.
9 ICE inmates are seen waving to a drone, while holding a banner that says they want to be deported in Anson, Texas on May 12, 2025.
Getty Images
White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said 'anyone' who is in the US illegally 'is at risk of deportation.'
'President Trump is working hand-in-glove with DHS and ICE agents to deliver on his campaign promise to remove criminal illegal aliens from the country while executing the largest mass deportation program in history,' said Jackson.
Jackson emphasized the 'critical' need for ICE to receive more funding from Congress through 'Trump's One, Big, Beautiful Bill' to continue the mass deportation raids. The bill would fund 'at least' one million deportations, 10,000 new ICE officers and 3,000 border agents, she said.
It would also give immigration agents 'bonuses,' which Jackson said 'they've more than earned.'
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