PHOENIX — The Trump administration reportedly removed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials in five major cities, including Phoenix, according to multiple news outlets.
Newsweek reported Monday that ICE Phoenix Field Office Director John Cantu was moved out of his job and into another role within the federal agency on Friday. His position will reportedly be filled by a senior Border Patrol agent.
ICE officials in Denver, San Diego, Los Angeles and Philadelphia were also reportedly removed from their posts last week.
Senior Border Patrol agents will also take over ICE operations in Denver, San Diego and Los Angeles. In Philadelphia, an ICE Homeland Security Investigations official will become the director of the field office, the news outlet added.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had originally planned to fire the five field directors but changed plans after pushback from Todd Lyons, the acting director of ICE, according to the Washington Examiner.
This could lead to a shakeup across ICE, as an official familiar with the plan told Newsweek “a lot more” of the agency’s 24 field offices nationwide could be affected.
When asked for comment on the reported staffing changes, a DHS spokesperson sent KTAR News 92.3 FM the following statement:
This is one team, one fight. President Trump has a brilliant, tenacious team led by Secretary Noem to deliver on the American people’s mandate to remove criminal illegal aliens from this country. Stephen Miller, Tom Homan, Todd Lyons, Gregory Bovino, Corey Lewandowski, and Madison Sheahan are patriots who wake up every day to make this country and its people safer. As we said, we have no personnel changes to announce right now but we remain laser focused on results and we will deliver.
ICE shakeup comes amid increase in immigration enforcement operations
The reorganization at the top of the ICE field offices comes after the federal agency announced Monday morning that it is planning to increase enforcement operations and deploy newly trained agents around the nation.
This is due to the funding the agency received in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which provided ICE with $45 billion to increase detention capacity to 100,000 beds, $14 billion for transportation and deportation operations and $8 billion to hire 10,000 deportation officers over the next five years.
ICE also received billions in additional funding to use for cooperation programs with state and local law enforcement agencies, technology upgrades and incentives to help retain personnel.
DHS is currently running a nationwide recruitment operation for ICE, saying it needs additional personnel in the Enforcement and Removal Operations branch. That effort has led to more than 175,000 applications being received from people who want to join the agency and offers being extended to more than 18,000 of those applicants, according to DHS.
DHS announced Sunday that the Trump administration’s focus on immigration enforcement has resulted in 500,000 deportations and about 1.6 million migrants leaving the U.S. since January.
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