In May reports revealed that White House officials had set goals for Ice agents to arrest 3,000 people per day<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a new court filing, attorneys for the Trump administration denied the existence of a daily quota for immigration arrests, despite\u2002reports and prior statements<\/a> from White House officials about pursuing a goal of at least 3,000 deportations or deportation arrests per day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In May, reports from both the Guardian\u2002<\/a>and Axios<\/a> revealed that during a meeting with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) leaders on 21 May, the White House adviser Stephen Miller and the Department of Homeland Security secretary, Kristi Noem, demanded that immigration agents seek to arrest 3,000 people per day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Following that report, Miller appeared on Fox News\u2002<\/a>in late May and stated that \u201cunder President Trump\u2019s leadership, we are looking to set a goal of a minimum of 3,000 arrests for Ice every day.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n He added that Trump \u201cis going to keep pushing to get that number up higher each and every day\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, in a court filing<\/a> on Friday, lawyers representing the US justice department said that the Department of Homeland Security had confirmed that \u201cneither Ice leadership nor its field offices have been directed to meet any numerical quota or target for arrests, detentions, removals, field encounters, or any other operational activities that Ice or its components undertake in the course of enforcing federal immigration law.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The filing is part of an ongoing lawsuit in southern California, where immigrant advocacy groups have sued<\/a> the Trump administration, accusing it of conducting unconstitutional immigration sweeps in the Los Angeles area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In mid-July a judge issued a temporary restraining order<\/a> barring immigration agents from detaining individuals based on factors such as race, occupation or speaking Spanish anywhere in the central district of California, which includes Los Angeles. On Friday, an appeals court upheld that order<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Politico<\/a> reported that during a hearing earlier this week in the case, the justice department lawyers were pressed on the reports regarding the alleged arrest quota, and a judge reportedly asked whether it was a \u201cpolicy of the administration at this time to deport 3,000 persons per day?\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n An attorney for the justice department, Yaakov Roth, reportedly responded \u201cNot to my knowledge, your honor\u201d per Politico.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And in the government\u2019s filing\u2002<\/a>on Friday, the attorneys for the government said that the allegations of that the \u201cgovernment maintains a policy mandating 3,000 arrests per day appears to originate from media reports quoting a White House advisor who described that figure as a \u2018goal\u2019 that the Administration was \u2018looking to set\u2019\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThat quotation may have been accurate, but no such goal has been set as a matter of policy and no such directive has been issued to or by DHS or ICE\u201d the attorneys added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The discrepancy was first reported by the Los Angeles Daily News<\/a> and Politico<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When asked about the discrepancy, Tricia McLaughlin, the DHS assistant press secretary, said in a statement to the Guardian: \u201cUnder Secretary Noem, we are delivering on President Trump\u2019s and the American people\u2019s mandate to arrest and deport criminal illegal aliens to make American safe.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSecretary Noem unleashed ICE to target the worst of the worst and carry out the largest deportation operation of criminal aliens in American history,\u201d McLaughlin added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a statement to\u2002Politico<\/a>, a White House spokesperson also <\/strong>did not directly address the <\/strong>questions about the discrepancy, but said that \u201cthe Trump Administration is committed to carrying out the largest mass deportation operation in history by enforcing federal immigration law and removing the countless violent, criminal illegal aliens that Joe Biden let flood into American communities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n A justice department spokesperson told the outlet that there is no disconnect between the DoJ\u2019s court filings and the White House\u2019s public statements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The spokesperson added that \u201cthe entire Trump administration<\/a> is united in fully enforcing our nation\u2019s immigration laws and the DoJ continues to play an important role in vigorously defending the president\u2019s deportation agenda in court.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n At various points during his 2024 election campaign, Trump claimed that he would target\u2002<\/a>between\u200215 and 20 million<\/a> people who are undocumented in the US for deportation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As of 2022, there were 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the US.<\/p>\n\n\n\n