In a sweeping personnel shake-up that reads more like a campaign promise being turned into a bureaucratic purge, the Trump administration has reportedly ripped the lid off Immigration and Customs Enforcement and begun installing a new breed of hard-charging enforcers.
The narrative, laid out in a detailed Twitter thread by Fox’s Bill Melugin, sketches a Department of Homeland Security at war with its own instincts: patient, targeted enforcement on one side; aggressive, roving deportations on the other — and the political leadership clearly favoring the latter.
BREAKING: Per four senior DHS & Trump admin sources, a mass removal of ICE leadership around the country is underway, with up to 12 ICE field office chiefs being removed & reassigned in an effort to increase deportation numbers. I'm told the move is spearheaded by Corey…
— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) October 27, 2025
According to multiple anonymous senior DHS sources, up to a dozen ICE field office chiefs have been reassigned or removed, with replacements likely to come from Customs and Border Protection’s Border Patrol ranks. That’s not a small shuffle.
It’s a structural pivot. ICE and Border Patrol have long operated with different missions and tactics: ICE’s work tends to be intelligence-driven and precise, focused on criminal aliens and individuals with deportation orders; Border Patrol’s recent playbook under the current administration has leaned into high-visibility, wide-net operations across interior cities. Moving Border Patrol personnel into ICE leadership roles signals an operational fusion — and a willingness to prioritize speed and volume over surgical discretion.
The change isn’t merely managerial; it’s philosophical. Sources say advisors like Corey Lewandowski and Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino are driving the effort, with DHS Secretary Kristi Noem aligned behind a more maximalist approach: anyone in the country illegally is now a target.
That stance clashes with voices inside the sprawling department — ICE Director Todd Lyons and Border Czar Tom Homan among them — who argue for concentrating resources on violent offenders and the “worst of the worst.” One senior DHS official encapsulated the internal critique bluntly: getting numbers is one thing, but “at what cost?” when operations drift into mass, politically risky sweeps?
This is one team, one fight. President Trump has a brilliant, tenacious team led by @Sec_Noem to deliver on the American people’s mandate to remove criminal illegal aliens from this country.@StephenM @RealTomHoman @ICEDirector @CMDROpAtLargeCA @CLewandowski_ @ICEDeputy are… https://t.co/S9KlXkscXM
— Tricia McLaughlin (@TriciaOhio) October 28, 2025
The political calculus is evident. A freshly funded ICE — after the passage of what sources call the “One Big Beautiful Bill” — is under pressure to produce deportation statistics, and the review of leadership appears tied to perceived capacity to execute a mass deportation agenda.
Critics warn that transplanting Border Patrol tactics into ICE could amplify public-relations headaches and trigger legal pushback; viral raids and roving patrols have already prompted injunctions and lawsuits in several districts. Proponents counter that the country elected a president who promised decisive action on illegal immigration, and the bureaucracy must now deliver.