RAMP UP

Secret Order to ICE Agents Revealed as Republicans Panic

The new goal would set a weekly arrest record for ICE under the Trump administration.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have been instructed to increase immigration arrests by 1,000 more people a day.

The new directive is a return to a previous goal of 3,000 daily arrests, a target the agency has struggled to meet in the past.

Leadership also set a weekly goal of 19,000 arrests for agents, accounting for fewer officers working over the weekend.

If met, the new goal would be the highest weekly arrest total ICE has made under the Trump administration.

In June, weekly immigration arrests reached a new high of 12,500, according to the Deportation Data project.

The agency is urging officers to maximize arrests of people it can deport, a source told CNN.

Immigration arrests had already been rising. In August, ICE took around 51,000 people into custody, setting a new monthly record under the Trump administration. That surpassed the previous record of more than 46,000 arrests, set just one month earlier.

Ahead of the midterms, the White House wants President Donald Trump to appear strong on his deportation pledge.

However, some Republicans are worried Trump’s tough on immigration tactics will hurt their chances in the midterms.

Play Video

Republican Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, whose South Florida district is heavily Hispanic, recently broke with Trump, speaking to him directly in an ad, “Some of your immigration enforcement efforts have gone too far.”

Despite the new goal, Trump administration officials have maintained that ICE agents have no quotas.

“There are NO quotas on arrests,” a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told the Daily Beast. “Under President Trump and Secretary Mullin’s leadership, ICE has been supercharged to find, arrest, and deport illegal aliens from the United States using every lawful tool available. This is promises made, promises kept in action, and the results speak for themselves.”

The surge in arrests has strained existing facilities. The department has solicited contractors to build temporary facilities to help accommodate the influx.

“Temporary infrastructure is urgently needed to expand secure processing and holding of illegal alien (IA) capacity and non-detained hearing space on site,” the solicitation reads.

The new goals come after the Department of Homeland Security laid out its policy on vehicle stops, which received backlash after some resulted in controversial fatal and non-fatal shootings over the summer.

The memo says ICE agents must complete related training courses and ensure their vehicles are equipped with lights and sirens in order to conduct vehicle stops.

An ICE spokesperson denied the guidance is new and described the memo sent to agents as a “reminder”.

See more of our coverage in your search results.

ADD THE DAILY BEAST ON GOOGLE

Lauren HartleyBreaking News Intern

Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here.