At a moment when President Trump’s immigration crackdown has inflamed political tensions, one of the top enforcers of his effort to deport undocumented immigrants is leaving his administration to run for Congress.
Madison D. Sheahan, 28, the deputy director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, announced on Thursday that she would enter the Republican primary race to oppose Representative Marcy Kaptur, a 22-term Democrat who represents a northwest Ohio district that Mr. Trump won in the last two presidential elections.
In her announcement video, Ms. Sheahan called herself “a Trump conservative” and focused on her work helping carry out the president’s deportation agenda.
“In less than one year at ICE, I’ve stopped more illegal immigration than Marcy Kaptur has in her 43 years in Washington,” Ms. Sheahan said.
How top of mind Mr. Trump’s immigration crackdown remains for voters come November will be one of the biggest question of the midterm elections. Polling so far suggests that while Americans generally favor tighter immigration policies, they believe Mr. Trump is going too far.
A CNN survey released Wednesday found that 51 percent of Americans said ICE enforcement actions were making cities less safe, compared with 31 percent who perceived an increase in safety. The fatal shooting of a Minneapolis woman by an ICE officer has touched off nationwide protests and renewed calls from some liberal Democrats to abolish the agency and impeach Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary.
Ms. Kaptur, 79, was first elected to represent the Toledo area in northwest Ohio in 1982, and she coasted to re-election every two years before Ohio Republicans redrew what had been a safe Democratic district into a competitive one before the 2022 elections.
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In 2024, she won by less than a percentage point against Derek Merrin, who at the time served in the Ohio legislature. On the same ballot, Mr. Trump carried the district by seven points against Vice President Kamala Harris.
Mr. Merrin announced another challenge to Ms. Kaptur in June. Several other Republicans have entered the primary, including Josh Williams, a state representative from Toledo.
Before coming to Washington, Ms. Sheahan worked as a political aide to Ms. Noem when she was South Dakota’s governor and as secretary of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. Ms. Noem praised Ms. Sheahan as a “terrific leader” in a statement to Fox News.
Democrats professed confidence that Ms. Kaptur would prevail, but they steered clear of addressing Ms. Sheahan’s immigration enforcement credentials.
“Voters are tired of the self-dealing corruption and culture of lawlessness they’ve seen over the last year,” said Kegan Zimmermann, Ms. Kaptur’s campaign manager. “They want a leader focused on affordability and real results, and Marcy Kaptur consistently works across the aisle to deliver both.”
Ms. Sheahan’s departure from the agency comes as the Trump administration carries out an immigration enforcement blitz in Minnesota, which ICE has called its “largest operation to date.” Roughly 3,000 federal agents and officers are being deployed to the Minneapolis region as part of the effort, which administration officials have said is meant to crack down on illegal immigration and fraud.
The operation has led to clashes between protesters and law enforcement officers. Local officials in Minneapolis have urged immigration officers to leave the city, saying their efforts have sowed chaos. Trump administration officials have pledged that federal agents will remain.
Ms. Sheahan has repeatedly defended the agency’s enforcement operations, saying they are necessary to remove people in the country illegally.
“President Trump is taking the stand and making sure that we’re enforcing the law as it’s written with the support of Secretary Noem leading the way to make sure we get these dangerous criminals removed from our community,” Ms. Sheahan said in an interview with Fox News in September.
Reid J. Epstein is a Times reporter covering campaigns and elections from Washington.
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