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The Trump administration has begun purging Immigration and Customs Enforcement leadership in five major cities and replacing them with senior Border Patrol agents, a move that insiders say marks a sweeping shift in the way the government will carry out interior immigration enforcement.
ICE field office directors in Denver, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Phoenix, and San Diego were removed from their posts last Friday and reassigned within the agency, multiple sources said to the Washington Examiner.
The five offices are said to be the first of several that will undergo restructuring across ICE’s 24 field locations nationwide.
“It’s a lot more,” one official with firsthand knowledge of the plan said, indicating that additional ICE offices are expected to see leadership changes.
Five officials confirmed that the field office directors were relieved of their duties and reassigned elsewhere. DHS initially sought to fire all five but reversed course after acting ICE Director Todd Lyons intervened, urging that they be moved to headquarters instead.
“The administration wanted all these guys fired and Todd stepped in and said, ‘Let’s move them all to headquarters,’” another official said. Lyons did not respond to requests for comment.
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