According to three sources familiar with the plan, the Trump administration intends to deploy hundreds of border agents to various parts of the country to assist Immigration and Customs Enforcement in arresting unauthorized immigrants in the United States’ interior.
The plan would be the latest escalation in the Trump administration’s aggressive efforts to marshal vast resources and personnel from federal agencies to assist ICE in carrying out what the president has promised will be the largest deportation operation in US history.
The effort is expected to involve approximately 500 U.S. Customs and Border Protection personnel, including green-uniformed Border Patrol agents in charge of intercepting the illegal entry of migrants and drugs, according to sources who requested anonymity to discuss internal government plans that have not yet been announced.
According to the sources, CBP teams would also include members from the agency’s Office of Field Operations, which oversees legal entry points into the United States, as well as Air and Marine Operations, a specialized law enforcement unit with maritime and aerial assets.
According to the sources, CBP agents and officers assigned to the effort will assist their counterparts in ICE’s 25 field offices by supporting immigration enforcement operations aimed at illegal immigrants in the country.
The effort could begin as early as next week, according to two sources.
CBP officers have the legal authority to arrest and process immigrants suspected of being in the United States illegally. Historically, CBP’s work has been primarily focused on the Mexican and Canadian borders, maritime sectors, and international airports.
Despite multiple requests for comment, representatives from the Department of Homeland Security and CBP did not respond.
The plan emphasizes the Trump administration’s government-wide effort to find the manpower needed to ramp up its crackdown on illegal immigration, as Congress debates giving ICE billions of dollars to hire thousands more immigration agents and detention beds.
The Trump administration has already tasked law enforcement personnel from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and other agencies, such as the Internal Revenue Service, with assisting ICE in targeting and arresting unauthorized immigrants.
DHS officials have also asked the Pentagon to allow 20,000 National Guard troops to support interior immigration enforcement operations. The Department of Defense has already deployed thousands of additional active-duty troops to the southern border to assist CBP in deterring illegal crossings.
The effort also suggests that interior enforcement operations are taking precedence over efforts at the US-Mexico border, which has seen a historic drop in illegal crossings.
In President Trump’s first three months in office, illegal crossings at the southern border have reached the lowest monthly totals ever publicly reported by CBP. According to historical government data, these are most likely the lowest levels since the late 1960s.
Officials have attributed the dramatic drop in illegal border crossings to measures implemented by Mr. Trump shortly after he began his second term, including an unprecedented policy that effectively closed the American asylum system on the grounds that the country is facing a “invasion.”