Trump Administration Plans a Shake-Up at ICE to Speed Deportations

The Trump administration is drawing up plans for a shake-up at Immigration and Customs Enforcement, with officials looking to replace several senior leaders in field offices across the country, according to three people familiar with the plans.

The proposal stems from frustration in the White House and the Department of Homeland Security over the pace of deportations, which are lagging behind President Trump’s goal of more than a million by the end of the first year of his second term.

The people cautioned that the plans, which involve reassigning about a half dozen field office leaders, had not been finalized. The people spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss ideas still under consideration.

The proposed shake-up illustrates how the administration is still scrambling to satisfy Mr. Trump’s demand to crack down on immigration, an issue at the heart of his political agenda, even as the president and his top aides have promoted their efforts to secure the border and deport hundreds of thousands of people.

Abigail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman, would not comment on the plans for a shake-up. But she said in a statement that “the president’s entire team is working in lock step to implement the president’s policy agenda, and the tremendous results from securing the border to deporting criminal illegal aliens speak for themselves.”

There are more than two dozen field office directors overseeing deportation efforts across the country. Each officer’s region can be expansive, encompassing multiple states or large territories such as Northern California.