President-elect Donald Trump will reportedly lift restrictions preventing Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials from making arrests at “protected areas” to facilitate his promised deportation effort.
Current ICE policy places significant limitations on agents’ ability to make arrests at or near areas that provide essential services or activities, including religious institutions, schools, and hospitals, without first obtaining approval from superiors.
The restrictions possibly present an obstacle to the incoming Trump administration’s plans to detain and deport millions of illegal immigrants swiftly, leading the president-elect to say he will immediately overhaul the ICE policy when he assumes office, according to NBC.
The Washington Examiner reached out to the Trump team for comment but did not receive a reply at the time of publication.
ICE first adopted the policy in a 2011 memorandum titled “Enforcement Actions at or Focused on Sensitive Locations.” A decade later, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas superseded the guidance with the similar “Guidelines for Enforcement Actions in or Near Protected Areas.”
“Absent exigent circumstances, DHS officers and agents must seek prior approval from their agency’s headquarters or an authorized delegate before taking an enforcement action in or near a protected area,” Mayorkas’s 2021 policy states. “To the fullest extent possible, any enforcement actions in or near a protected area should be taken in a non-public area, outside of public view, and to eliminate or minimize the chance that the enforcement action will prevent people from accessing the protected area.”
Trump’s vow to secure the border and deport people in the country illegally formed the core of his message to voters during the 2024 election. The policy has gained favor with voters, according to recent surveys showing the majority of voters support deporting illegal immigrants.
Calling his decisive victory on Nov. 5 a “mandate” to carry out his campaign promises, the president-elect promptly appointed a “border czar,” who formerly led ICE, to lead immigration reform during his second term.
“I’ve known Tom for a long time, and there is nobody better at policing and controlling our Borders. Likewise, Tom Homan will be in charge of all Deportation of Illegal Aliens back to their Country of Origin,” Trump said when he announced Tom Homan would tackle border security problems.
ICE data show agents carried out 63 planned and five exigent arrests at or near protected areas during Trump’s first term.
ICE agents are still allowed to carry out arrests at or near protected areas in “exigent” cases, such as when a national security or public safety threat is involved or if there is an imminent risk of death, violence, or physical harm to a person.
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However, Trump’s move to scale back the policy would give ICE agents far more leverage to target people in the country illegally, particularly the violent criminals he has pledged to prioritize removing first.
ICE’s estimates said roughly 660,000 noncitizens with criminal histories were in the United States in July. Some Republicans have suggested that number could be as high as 4 million.