Acting Homeland Security Secretary Benjamine Huffman on Thursday deputized agents and officers at the Justice Department to help in making immigration arrests, creating a force multiplier as President Trump seeks to carry out his promise of mass deportations.
Mr. Huffman signed a directive granting immigration investigation and arrest powers to the U.S. Marshals Service, Drug Enforcement Administration, Bureau of Prisons and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
“Mobilizing these law enforcement officials will help fulfill President Trump’s promise to the American people to carry out mass deportations,” Mr. Huffman said. “For decades, efforts to find and apprehend illegal aliens have not been given proper resources. This is a major step in fixing that problem.”
The move adds to the full-court press Mr. Trump and his team have made on immigration in this first week of the new administration.
Mr. Huffman has already nixed Biden-era rules that limited where U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency chiefly responsible for interior arrests of deportable migrants, was allowed to make arrests.
And the Pentagon said it will provide airlift capacity to help Homeland Security fly deportees out faster.
Mr. Huffman’s announcement did not say whether those Justice Department officers will be tasked specifically with conducting immigration enforcement or whether they will only act ancillary to their regular duties when they contact a deportation target.
Either way, though, the extra manpower could increase the total arrest numbers in the interior of the U.S.
ICE tallied just 33,242 at-large arrests in fiscal year 2024.
That was down significantly from 2023, when deportation officers counted nearly 91,500 at-large arrests. ICE blamed the massive decrease on having too few officers and resources at a time when they were being asked to assist in the border chaos, taking them away from their interior mission.
Mr. Huffman’s directive is likely to be unpopular among immigrant rights groups who have complained about expanding immigration enforcement.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.