Washington — Caleb Vitello, the acting head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, is being reassigned amid internal frustrations over the agency’s progress in carrying out President Trump’s mass deportation goals, administration officials told CBS News on Friday.
In a statement, Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin confirmed Vitello’s reassignment, saying he “is 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 Noem.”
The leadership shakeup follows another move made by the Trump administration earlier this month to reassign two high-ranking officials at ICE’s deportation branch, known as Enforcement and Removal Operations.
Vitello was installed by Mr. Trump to lead ICE in an acting capacity at the start of his second administration in January.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement via Getty Images
The agency, which oversees immigration arrests and deportations in the interior of the country, is at the center of efforts to carry out what Mr. Trump has promised will be the largest deportation operation in U.S. history.
Trump administration officials have moved to dramatically expand ICE’s mandate, aggressively publicizing immigration arrest operations and giving deportation agents broader powers to arrest migrants living in the U.S. illegally, including non-criminals who lack proper immigration documents.
The Trump administration has also rescinded Biden-era limits on ICE arrests, including a policy that previously banned immigration arrests at so-called sensitive locations like churches, schools and hospitals.
But despite the sweeping policy changes, top administration officials have expressed concerns, privately and publicly, about ICE arrests and deportations not being as high as they would like them to be.
Tom Homan, a former top ICE official who is serving as the administration’s border czar, said earlier this month he was “not happy” with the current arrest levels.
“The number is a lot higher than under the Biden administration but we’ve got to do more,” Homan said on CNN, calling it “hard work.”
