CNN
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The Trump administration is planning to deploy hundreds more federal personnel to ramp up arrests of undocumented immigrants as soon as this week, according to two sources familiar with the planning, including tapping Border Patrol agents to fan out nationwide.
The move, which is also expected to include help from state National Guard units, comes as the Justice Department is also intensifying its crackdown on immigration-related crime in cities across the country – the latest escalations in the administration’s effort to overcome limited resources and personnel to fulfill President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign promise
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers – typically charged with the arrest and detention of undocumented immigrants in the US – have been under tremendous pressures to deliver results but have faced many of the same logistical problems that have dogged previous administrations.
White House deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller has previously described quotas on ICE field offices as a “floor, not a ceiling.” But to execute on that, Trump officials have had to look across the federal government for help.
That effort is now expected to include US Border Patrol agents, who have authority to conduct immigration enforcement across the country. The involvement of Border Patrol speaks to the White House’s confidence in the situation at the US southern border, where migrant crossings have plummeted, freeing up resources.
In addition to being stationed on US borders, US Border Patrol agents are also stationed in multiple cities across the country. Their primary mission is border security. The deployment of additional agents in the interior of the United States marks a doubling down on interior enforcement, which has typically been ICE’s charge.
Agents are also expected to get help from National Guard units in states where governors have provided permissions. While they can’t make arrests, they’re expected to bolster arresting teams on the ground and provide what’s known as “force protection,” one of the sources said.
CNN reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for comment.
Some states are expected to deputize their National Guard under appropriate authorities to serve as a force multiplier, according to a defense official, who maintained they are expected to remain in a supporting status. It’s unclear how many Guardsmen will be tied up with state orders, according to the official.
Earlier this year, US Customs and Border Protection and the Texas National Guard entered a memorandum of understanding to grant certain Texas Guard personnel immigration authority under the supervision of CBP officials.
“Partnerships with committed state governors are vital to that commitment, particularly in a state like Texas, which has faced unprecedented migration challenges in recent years, straining law enforcement resources and increasing security threats along the border,” a CBP spokesperson said at the time of the announcement, referring to a whole-of-government approach toward immigration enforcement.
The administration has also emphasized it’s looking for help from the states in its efforts to arrest and detain undocumented immigrants. Earlier this year, the then-acting homeland security secretary released a memo, pivoting off of Trump’s invasion-oriented executive orders, that made a finding of a “mass influx” of migrants to trigger new state authorities for immigration enforcement.
The administration has already mobilized wide swaths of the federal government to arrest and detain undocumented immigrants, but challenges remain. ICE, for example, is currently funded for around 40,000 detention beds and has around 6,000 immigration enforcement officers.
Officials at the White House have also been pushing Justice Department leadership to intensify its crackdown on illegal immigration, a person familiar with the matter told CNN.
To that end, the Justice Department is directing federal agents in more than two dozen cities to sideline some of their existing investigations and instead focus their efforts on finding and arresting undocumented immigrants.
The department selected 25 cities to focus their efforts on – starting with sending a large number of federal agents from the FBI, ATF, DEA and the US Marshals Service to assist in immigration enforcement. FBI agents are expected to comprise about 45% of the increased federal effort, according to the person familiar.
The New York Times first reported on the department’s new multi-city surge.
Some FBI agents who work in areas that the Trump administration believes are hotbeds of immigration-related crime could be spending as much as a third of their time working immigration efforts, two other people familiar with the effort told CNN. That percentage could be far lower in areas of the country where crimes related to immigration are less common.
The move raises questions about how the Justice Department will use its resources to address other federal crimes, and comes as the department continues its efforts to step away from white collar prosecutions, including foreign bribery cases.
In an address Monday, Matthew Galeotti, the head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, announced new guidance that doubles down on Attorney General Pam Bondi’s promise to shift the department’s resources away from prosecuting American businesses and towards prosecuting “cartel enablers and other financial facilitators of transnational crime.”
CNN’s Jamie Gangel contributed to this report.
