New Leadership at ICE as Data Shows Rising Arrests
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) named new leadership at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), as the Trump administration tries to accelerate the removals of illegal migrants. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem named Todd Lyons as Acting ICE Director and Madison Sheahan as Deputy Director.
Lyons is the acting Executive Associate Director of ICE – Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO). He was the former Assistant Director of Field Operations for ERO, overseeing all 25 Field Office and domestic operations across the United States.
Sheahan comes to ICE from the state of Louisiana, where she was the Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. Sheahan earlier worked with Secretary Noem while she was governor of South Dakota.
“Todd Lyons and Madison Sheahan are work horses, strong executors and accountable leaders who will lead the men and women of ICE to achieve the American people’s mandate to target, arrest and deport illegal aliens,” Secretary Noem said in a statement.
The leadership changes come after former ICE acting director Caleb Vitello was reassigned to another position in the agency, after frustration over the slow pace of deportations.
Secretary Noem meanwhile has blamed leaks in the department for slowing down removals, recent accusing two individuals at DHS for improperly disclosing information about immigration raids and promising they would be prosecuted.
Arrests Rise
However, new data shows that the Trump Administration is making progress in arrest illegal migrants. Over the first 50 days of President Trump’s term, ICE made 32,809 arrests, about 656 arrests a day. By comparison ICE arrested and detained about 255 people each day in the last year of the Biden Administration.
The arrests include 646 undocumented aliens during a week-long targeted enforcement operation in the Houston area, conducted between February 23 and March 2. 543 of those were criminal aliens and seven were gang members.
“Fueled by our unwavering commitment to protect the public from harm, and united in our determination to restore integrity to our nation’s system of laws, ICE and our law enforcement partners in Southeast Texas have banded together to remove these dangerous criminal aliens from our local communities and put an end to the lawlessness that they spread,” said ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Houston Field Office Director Bret Bradford.
Activist Arrested
Meanwhile ICE agents in New York City arrested a Palestinian activist who played a prominent role in leading Columbia University’s protests against Israel.
Mahmoud Khalil was taken into custody inside his apartment by ICE agents. His attorney says the agents were acting on State Department orders to revoke Khalil’s student visa. Informed by the attorney that Khalil was in the United States as a permanent resident with a green card, the agent said they were revoking that instead, according to the lawyer.
DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said the arrest was “in support of President Trump’s executive orders prohibiting anti-Semitism.”
Legal experts say the detention of a legal permanent resident who was not charged with a crime is an unusual move with an uncertain legal foundation.
“We have not been able to get any more details about why he is being detained,” said Khalil’s attorney Amy Greer. “This is a clear escalation. The administration is following through on its threats.”