President Donald Trump is reportedly unhappy with the pace of deportations at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and is changing out the department’s leadership.
A statement from ICE Thursday appeared to confirm the report and announced several changes, including the retirement of Acting Executive Associate Director of Enforcement and Removal Operations Ken Genalo.
Trump had promised mass deportation of illegal aliens in order to combat the crime crisis that resulted from lax border enforcement policies from previous administrations. Once in office for the second term, the administration was stymied by legal challenges that accused officials of violating due process rights of migrants.
The department said Thursday that a leadership “realignment” would improve the “increasing operational tempo” of deportations.
“Organizational realignments will help ICE achieve President Trump and the American people’s mandate of arresting and deporting criminal illegal aliens and making American communities safe,” the department added.
White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller said that their goal was to reach at least 3,000 deportations per day.
The statement indicated that Homeland Security Investigations Acting Executive Associate Director Robert Hammer would also be reassigned to another critical leadership position after two decades at HSI.
Other changes were made