The Trump administration is planning to dispatch hundreds of border agents to different parts of the country so they can help Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrest unauthorized immigrants in the U.S interior, three sources familiar with the plan told CBS News.
The plan would be the latest escalation in the Trump administration’s aggressive efforts to muster the vast resources and personnel of agencies across the federal government to support ICE in its bid to carry out what the president has vowed will be the largest deportation operation in U.S. history.
The effort is expected to involve around 500 personnel from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, including green-uniformed Border Patrol agents in charge of interdicting the illicit entry of migrants and drugs, the sources said, requesting anonymity to discuss internal governments plans that have not been announced.
The sources said the CBP teams would also include members of the agency’s Office of Field Operations, which oversees legal entry points into the U.S., and Air and Marine Operations, a specialized law enforcement unit with maritime and aerial assets.
CBP agents and officers assigned to the effort are expected to assist their counterparts in ICE’s 25 field offices by supporting immigration enforcement operations targeting immigrants in the country illegally, the sources added.
The effort could start as early as next week, two of the sources said.
As immigration officers, CBP personnel have the legal authority to arrest and process immigrants who are suspected of being in the U.S. illegally. Historically, however, CBP’s work has been mainly limited to the Mexican and Canadian borders, maritime sectors and international airports.
Representatives for the Department of Homeland Security and CBP did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
The plan highlights the Trump administration’s government-wide campaign to find the manpower necessary to scale up its crackdown on illegal immigration, while Congress debates giving ICE billions of dollars to add thousands of additional immigration agents and detention beds.
The Trump administration has already tasked law enforcement personnel at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the Drug Enforcement Administration; the Federal Bureau of Investigation; and other agencies like the Internal Revenue Service with helping ICE target and arrest unauthorized immigrants.
Officials at DHS have also asked the Pentagon to allow 20,000 National Guard troops to provide support to interior immigration enforcement operations. The Department of Defense has already deployed thousands of additional active-duty troops to the southern border to help CBP deter illegal crossings.
The effort also suggests interior enforcement operations are taking precedence over efforts at the U.S.-Mexico border amid a historic drop in illegal crossings there.
In President Trump’s first three full months in office, illegal crossings at the southern border have reached the lowest monthly tallies ever publicly reported by CBP. They are also likely the lowest levels since the late 1960s, according to historical government data.
Officials have attributed the dramatic plunge in illegal border crossings to measures put in place by Mr. Trump immediately after he started his second term, including an unprecedented policy that has effectively closed the American asylum system on the premise the country is facing an “invasion.”
