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Trump Administration Begins Purge of ICE Leadership: Report

  
Via:  John Russell  •  last year  •  48 comments

By:   Michael Luciano (Mediaite)

Trump Administration Begins Purge of ICE Leadership: Report
The Trump administration initiated a purge of top officials in Immigration and Customs Enforcement amid growing frustration over the rate of deportations, NBC News and Fox News reported on Monday night.

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The Trump administration initiated a purge of top officials in Immigration and Customs Enforcement amid growing frustration over the rate of deportations, NBC News and Fox News reported on Monday night.

While NBC News reported that the administration "is planning to replace some regional leaders" at ICE with officials from Customs and Border Protection, Fox News's Bill Melugin said the purge is "underway."

"President Donald Trump's top aides have welcomed Border Patrol's more aggressive tactics to secure arrests, such as rappelling into apartment buildings from Black Hawk helicopters and jumping out of rental trucks in Home Depot parking lots, as they've become disappointed with ICE," two Department of Homeland Security officials told NBC News.

"The mentality is CBP does what they're told, and the administration thinks ICE isn't getting the job done," one of the DHS officials told NBC. "So CBP will do it."

Both NBC and Fox reported that the initiative is being led by DHS special employee Corey Lewandowski, a longtime confidant of DHS Secretary Kristi Noem.

Melugin reported on X that ICE field office directors in at least eight cities are being replaced, including those in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Phoenix, and New Orleans. He said there is "significant friction in Homeland Security as to how to best to achieve more deportations:


I'm told there is significant friction within different wings of DHS and the administration, with Border Czar Tom Homan & ICE Director Todd Lyons preferring to prioritize targeting criminal aliens & the 'worst of the worst' or those with deportation orders while DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, Corey Lewandowski, and BP Commander Bovino prefer to use aggressive tactics to arrest anyone in the US illegally, including but not limited to criminals, to ramp up deportation numbers and achieve President Trump's promises of mass deportations.

One Border Patrol agent Melugin spoke to said, "What did everyone think mass deportations meant? Only the worst? Tom Homan has said it himself, anyone in the US illegally is on the table."

On Friday, The New York Times reported that the administration was planning major changes in leadership at ICE.

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JohnRussell
Professor Principal
1  seeder  JohnRussell    last year

Trump is complaining that not enough non-criminal immigrants are being arrested. 

 
 
 
Vic Eldred
Professor Principal
1.1  Vic Eldred  replied to  JohnRussell @1    last year

Is that a valid complaint?

 
 
 
bugsy
Professor Participates
1.1.1  bugsy  replied to  Vic Eldred @1.1    last year

What was meant was ‘Trump is getting rid of too many future democrats’

 
 
 
JohnRussell
Professor Principal
2  seeder  JohnRussell    last year

 
 
 
JohnRussell
Professor Principal
2.1  seeder  JohnRussell  replied to  JohnRussell @2    last year

This guy Bovino is a psychopath. 

 
 
 
Vic Eldred
Professor Principal
2.1.1  Vic Eldred  replied to  JohnRussell @2.1    last year

psychopath

noun

psy·​cho·​path   ˈsī-kə-ˌpath   
ˈsī-kō-
:   a mentally unstable person
especially   :   a person having an egocentric and antisocial personality marked by a lack of remorse for one's actions, an absence of empathy for others, and often criminal tendencies

PSYCHOPATH Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster


Could you demonstrate how Bovino falls into the category of psychopath?

 
 
 
Greg Jones
Professor Participates
2.1.2  Greg Jones  replied to  JohnRussell @2.1    last year

We know who the real psychopath(s) are

 
 
 
Gsquared
Professor Expert
2.1.3  Gsquared  replied to  Greg Jones @2.1.2    last year
We know who the real psychopath(s) are

We sure do.  Here are the five most severely demented:

original

What a sick bunch of MFs.

 
 
 
JohnRussell
Professor Principal
2.1.4  seeder  JohnRussell  replied to  Gsquared @2.1.3    last year

Stephen Miller's feelings are hurt. 

 
 
 
JohnRussell
Professor Principal
2.1.5  seeder  JohnRussell  replied to  Vic Eldred @2.1.1    last year
a person having an egocentric and antisocial personality marked by a lack of remorse for one's actions, an absence of empathy for others, and often criminal tendencies

exactly

 
 
 
Gsquared
Professor Expert
2.1.6  Gsquared  replied to  JohnRussell @2.1.4    last year

Funny.

Yeah, he shouldn't have been left out.

 
 
 
JohnRussell
Professor Principal
3  seeder  JohnRussell    last year

For the life of me I can not understand how conservatives and MAGAs think this sort of activity can be sustainable for the next three years. 

 
 
 
Trout Giggles
Professor Principal
3.1  Trout Giggles  replied to  JohnRussell @3    last year

who turned into the battlefield? It sure isn't the citizens of Chicago

 
 
 
JohnRussell
Professor Principal
3.1.1  seeder  JohnRussell  replied to  Trout Giggles @3.1    last year

These people are not paid protesters, they are people who live in that regular, ordinary American neighborhood. 

 
 
 
Vic Eldred
Professor Principal
3.1.2  Vic Eldred  replied to  Trout Giggles @3.1    last year

The people (whoever they are) who are trying to prevent ICE agents from doing their job might be the culprits.

Think about it.

 
 
 
JohnRussell
Professor Principal
3.1.3  seeder  JohnRussell  replied to  Vic Eldred @3.1.2    last year

Look at the videos , (and they are not even as bad as its gong to get.)

This is not something that is sustainable for three more years. 

 
 
 
Vic Eldred
Professor Principal
3.1.4  Vic Eldred  replied to  JohnRussell @3.1.3    last year

I have looked. Whoever these people are they are interfering with ICE agents.

You are on the wrong side of history ...again!

 
 
 
JohnRussell
Professor Principal
3.1.5  seeder  JohnRussell  replied to  Vic Eldred @3.1.4    last year

You dont get it. People dont want soldiers with military weapons in their hands roaming through their neighborhood. 

 
 
 
Vic Eldred
Professor Principal
3.1.6  Vic Eldred  replied to  JohnRussell @3.1.5    last year
People dont want soldiers with military weapons in their hands roaming through their neighborhood. 

You mean these protestors are residents?

Prove it!

 
 
 
Right Down the Center
Professor Participates
3.1.7  Right Down the Center  replied to  JohnRussell @3.1.5    last year

You don't get it. If people don't feel safe in their own neighborhood because of drugs and crime they welcome all the help they can get. It is people that go home to safe neighborhoods that are outraged 

 
 
 
Vic Eldred
Professor Principal
3.1.8  Vic Eldred  replied to  Right Down the Center @3.1.7    last year

I'm sure many residents of Chicago neighborhoods welcome every bit of police protection they can get.

I'm wondering who these people are that are in the streets trying to intervene in ICE operations. Who are they?

 
 
 
JohnRussell
Professor Principal
3.1.9  seeder  JohnRussell  replied to  Vic Eldred @3.1.8    last year
I'm wondering who these people are that are in the streets trying to intervene in ICE operations. Who are they?

You sound ridiculous. They live on that block or the next one over. 

 
 
 
JohnRussell
Professor Principal
3.1.10  seeder  JohnRussell  replied to  Right Down the Center @3.1.7    last year

Many of the neighborhoods ICE and Border Patrol have gone into dont have any "crime problem" at all, or at least no more than any other neighborhood in the country has. 

 
 
 
Vic Eldred
Professor Principal
3.1.11  Vic Eldred  replied to  JohnRussell @3.1.9    last year

Prove it!

 
 
 
JohnRussell
Professor Principal
3.1.12  seeder  JohnRussell  replied to  Vic Eldred @3.1.11    last year

www.rawstory.com   /trump-chicago-2674243290/

Judge tears into border chief after tear-gas deployed as kids headed to Halloween parade

Brad Reed, Common Dreams 4-5 minutes   10/28/2025


FILE PHOTO: A federal agent throws a tear   gas  canister during clashes with community members on Chicago’s South Side, in Chicago, Illinois, U.S., October 14, 2025, after U.S. President Donald Trump ordered increased federal law enforcement presence to assist in crime prevention. REUTERS/Jim Vondruska/File Photo

A   Chicago   judge rebuked US Border Patrol Commander-at-Large Gregory Bovino on Tuesday after several of his agents over the weekend deployed tear gas in a neighborhood where local   children   were preparing for a Halloween parade—in violation of a previous court order barring the use of the chemical unless federal officers are in immediate danger.

During a court appearance, Bovino was dressed down by US District Court Judge Sara Ellis, who said Border Patrol agents had violated her earlier restraining   order   that barred   US Department of Homeland Security   officials from using riot control weapons “on members of the press, protestors, or religious practitioners who are not posing an immediate threat to the safety of a law enforcement officer or others.”

As   reported   by Heather Cherone, a politics reporter at local Chicago news station   WTTW , Ellis grilled Bovino about multiple uses of force by federal   immigration   agents in recent weeks.

First, Ellis asked Bovino to comment on   allegations   filed in her court last week about federal immigration agents pointing a gun at a man who was peacefully protesting against their actions while standing on the side of a public street.

Bovino replied that he did not know the specific details of that incident, which Ellis said violated her earlier restraining order “on its face.”

Next, Ellis described   video   footage taken last weekend in the neighborhood of Old Irving Park showing federal immigration agents placing a US citizen in a chokehold after he had approached agents and asked them what they were doing. In this case, Bovino acknowledged that this action, as described, would not be an appropriate use of force.

Finally, Ellis asked Bovino about the tear gas   deployed   in Old Irving Park as families were preparing for an annual children’s Halloween parade. The Border Patrol agents’ use of the chemical appeared impossible to justify, said Elliis, given all known facts.

“These kids, you can imagine, their sense of safety was shattered,” Ellis said, referring to   children   in the neighborhood. “It is going to take a long time to come back, if ever.”

According   to Chicago Tribune reporter Jason Meisner, Ellis also told Bovino that kids should feel they’re able to go to local Halloween events without having to “worry about getting tear-gassed.”

“That’s not how any of us want to live,” Ellis emphasized. “I know you wouldn’t want to live that way.”

The federal immigration operation in Old Irving Park on Saturday targeted a man named   Luis Villegas , an undocumented immigrant who was working in the area and who, according to his brother, was brought to the US when he was 4 years old.

Agents detained two other people in the neighborhood in addition to Villegas, and deployed tear gas after several neighbors came out of their homes to yell at the officers, film them, and demand that they leave the neighborhood. A former Cook County prosecutor who lives in Old Irving Park and witnessed Villegas’ arrest told reporters that the agents were never under any threat.

Ellis ordered Bovino to appear in her courtroom every single day going forward to recap his agents’ actions in the district,   according   to Cherone.

She also demanded that Bovino ensure that every one of his officers is equipped with a body camera, and to submit all reports on use of force incidents and corresponding body camera footage by Friday.

A hearing on whether to make permanent Ellis’ restraining order which strictly limits the use of riot control munitions has been set for November 5,   according   to Cherone.

 
 
 
Vic Eldred
Professor Principal
3.1.13  Vic Eldred  replied to  JohnRussell @3.1.12    last year


An opinion piece from the "Raw Story" fails to answer the question: Who are the protestors clashing with ICE agents?

As to the fucking Obama judge - a ruling demanding rioters be warned will be challenged.

 
 
 
Vic Eldred
Professor Principal
3.1.14  Vic Eldred  replied to  Vic Eldred @3.1.13    last year

Evidently John has no answer.

Therefore, I will try and help. We just had an incident up my way:

"Three people who were trying to deliver supplies to federal immigration detainees were arrested outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Burlington Friday, police said.

Nathan Phillips, of Newton, Natasia Lawton-Sticklor, of Leominster, and Eleanor Reid, of Hanover, New Hampshire are all facing one misdemeanor charge of trespassing. 

Police reported to the ICE Boston Field Office Friday around 11 a.m. after ICE agents reported protesters who were refusing to leave the front steps, according to court documents and the  Burlington police . 

After the people allegedly said they had no intention of leaving “until we can deliver the food,” the report said, they were informed they could be arrested. 

“You have all been asked multiple times to leave. This is the operational area of this facility. You are disrupting the operations of the facility by being here with no actual business. You have been asked to leave by the security of the facility and the Burlington Police Department,” a captain told the people at the scene, according to the report. “Are you refusing to do so? Are you refusing to leave?”

The three were then arrested without incident, according to police, who noted they believe arrests were the ultimate goal of a planned protest.

Phillips is a Boston University professor who previously participated in a  hunger strike  to protest what he called threats to free speech on campus amid the Trump administration’s crackdown on international student visas."

3 activists arrested at ICE office trying to deliver food to detainees

 
 
 
JohnRussell
Professor Principal
3.1.16  seeder  JohnRussell  replied to  Vic Eldred @3.1.14    last year

American citizens have the right to yell at ICE officers without being assaulted or tear gassed.  I know you are desperate to portray the neighborhood citizens who come out of their houses to object to ICE as paid by Soros, but you need a much better excuse. 

This is not going to go on for three more years. Come up with a MUCH better plan. 

 
 
 
Right Down the Center
Professor Participates
3.1.17  Right Down the Center  replied to  JohnRussell @3.1.9    last year

I would love to see proof of that

 
 
 
Tacos!
Professor Guide
3.1.18  Tacos!  replied to  Vic Eldred @3.1.6    last year
You mean these protestors are residents?

Prove it!

That’s silly. Why wouldn’t they be? They’re in that place. Do you imagine they knew where ICE was going to and met them there in advance?

 
 
 
TᵢG
Professor Principal
3.1.19  TᵢG  replied to  Vic Eldred @3.1.2    last year
Think about it.

Yeah, think about it.   You have a bunch of masked 'agents' rounding up people (well beyond merely getting rapists, murderers, and thieves).   And then this administration tries to ship these people off to terrible nations to be imprisoned, tortured, and killed.

This is the same kind of shit that took place in Nazi Germany with the Brown Shirts.   The government, due to one idiot in charge, is rounding up people by force with government agents.

Trump is sick; he is a psychopath.   Supporting Trump is irrational, irresponsible, and unpatriotic.

 
 
 
Vic Eldred
Professor Principal
3.1.20  Vic Eldred  replied to  TᵢG @3.1.19    last year
You have a bunch of masked 'agents' rounding up people (well beyond merely getting rapists, murderers, and thieves). 

I voted to have all the people who entered illegally removed. Don't you believe in enforcing federal law?


This is the same kind of shit that took place in Nazi Germany with the Brown Shirts.  

That's a lie and you should know it. I'm giving you an F in history.


Trump is sick; he is a psychopath.   Supporting Trump is irrational, irresponsible, and unpatriotic.

The democrat party is dominated by radical leftist scum and in case you don't know it, the party is about to spend a few decades in the wilderness, just as they did following the turbulent 60s. I of course want the evil ideology eradicated completely.

 
 
 
Thomas
Professor Guide
3.1.21  Thomas  replied to  Vic Eldred @3.1.20    last year
The democrat party is dominated by radical leftist scum and in case you don't know it, the party is about to spend a few decades in the wilderness, just as they did following the turbulent 60s. I of course want the evil ideology eradicated completely.

I see your true colors come shining through...

How do you plan on eliminating the Democratic party?

Perhaps....

512

 
 
 
Trout Giggles
Professor Principal
3.1.22  Trout Giggles  replied to  Thomas @3.1.21    last year

It wouldn't surprise me. We're not decent humans, don't ya know, so we deserve death camps

 
 
 
TᵢG
Professor Principal
3.1.23  TᵢG  replied to  Vic Eldred @3.1.20    last year
I voted to have all the people who entered illegally removed. 

Not only is it insanely expensive to try to remove all illegals, it is flat out cruel.   It is wrong that we allowed them to stay, but given we have, those who have domiciled should not simply be deported.   They have jobs, families, children who are jus soli USA citizens.   They are also part of our economy.

The sensible way to operate is to shore up our borders so that we do in fact let in those who are legal (predominantly).   I support ICE rounding up murderers, rapists, thieves, etc.   I also support deporting (back to their original country) those who have recently arrived.

Good governance recognizes that bad actors and recent illegals are a very different problem than those who are domiciled.

Don't you believe in enforcing federal law?

You support a psychopath who views following rules (and the law) as a weakness ... for suckers ... and you dare speak about following the law now?   Yes, I am in favor of enforcing federal law.   And I outlined how I would do it.   The domiciled illegals are a complex problem that should not be addressed by Trump's thugs deporting them (especially to nations other than their own).   It is simplistic, sick, and ethically abhorrent.

That's a lie and you should know it.

You are the one who is blind to what is taking place, not me.   Trump expanded his campaign promise from murderers, rapists, etc. to all illegals and because he is trying to deny due process, he is going beyond that.   He is demonizing a group and using it to shore up political support from people who think as you do.

The democrat party is dominated by radical leftist scum and in case you don't know it, the party is about to spend a few decades in the wilderness, just as they did following the turbulent 60s. I of course want the evil ideology eradicated completely.

Perfect illustration of the alternate reality you have created for yourself.   An illustration that your posts are likely driven by hatred and certainly founded on emotion.   Imagine considering so many fellow Americans as "scum".   Ideological differences are one thing, but to view them as "scum" is irrational and emotional.   And to deem their ideology "evil" further illustrates a bizarre, emotional, alternate reality that I believe is underlying your posts.

Get a grip.

 
 
 
Gsquared
Professor Expert
3.1.24  Gsquared  replied to  JohnRussell @3.1.5    last year
People don't want soldiers with military weapons in their hands roaming through their neighborhood.

Real Americans don't, but fascists love it.  It's exactly what they want.

 
 
 
Gsquared
Professor Expert
3.1.25  Gsquared  replied to  Vic Eldred @3.1.20    last year
The democrat party is dominated by radical leftist scum.

That comment is a prime example of anti-American hatred.

 
 
 
Gsquared
Professor Expert
3.1.26  Gsquared  replied to  Vic Eldred @3.1.13    last year
fucking Obama judge

That comment is further proof of how much right wing extremists hate the American judicial system.  A major objective of Trump and his reactionary supporters is to subvert the independent judiciary and replace it with their feverishly desired Fourth Reich tribunals.

 
 
 
Ozzwald
Professor Quiet
3.1.27  Ozzwald  replied to  TᵢG @3.1.23    last year
An illustration that your posts are likely driven by hatred and certainly founded on emotion.

Or bought and paid for.

 
 
 
George
PhD Expert
4  George    last year

Deport every illegal in the country and then we can open the government because the fucktards in the House and Senate won't have healthcare for illegals to blackmail republicans with.

 
 
 
Tacos!
Professor Guide
4.1  Tacos!  replied to  George @4    last year

We don’t have that now, and they aren’t trying to change it. American citizens are losing their healthcare.

 
 
 
Dismayed Patriot
Professor Quiet
4.1.1  Dismayed Patriot  replied to  Tacos! @4.1    last year
American citizens are losing their healthcare.

That's just the baby getting tossed out with the bathwater. Conservatives have been trying to kill the subsidies for citizens healthcare and destroy the ACA for years. Now, because their dickwad logic of money in the ACA that was going to emergency rooms ends up treating undocumented immigrants, that means they have an excuse to slit the ACA's throat and claim it was to stop "paying healthcare for illegals". It's of course a completely disingenuous sleazy scumbag tactic and they know they are actually going to hurt millions of American citizens with this, but it's an ideological move to get the government out of the healthcare business so it can go back to being the cutthroat profit landscape where only the wealthy get treated and those with preexisting conditions can just fuck off like it used to be.

"My goal is to cut government in half in twenty-five years, to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub" - conservative Republican Grover Norquist

Frankly, rightwing conservatives just don't care how many Americans they have to drown along with it. They just can't stand the idea of paying tax dollars to a government that uses those tax dollars to provide health care, food and clean water to people that don't look like them, pray like them or share their same moral values. So, if America is supposed to continue to be a welcoming beacon for the tired, the poor, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free, rightwing conservatives intend to drown it so such care for our fellow human isn't coming out of their pocket.

 
 
 
Trout Giggles
Professor Principal
4.1.2  Trout Giggles  replied to  Dismayed Patriot @4.1.1    last year

MAGA won't care until it's their health care that's threatened

 
 
 
Sean Treacy
Professor Principal
4.1.3  Sean Treacy  replied to  Dismayed Patriot @4.1.1    last year
slit the ACA's throa

Lol. These were emergency covid subsidies that democrats originally voted to kill. 

But it shows you how big of  a failure the ACA is, without borrowing another trillion dollars for subsidies that were never supposed to exist, then Republicans are slitting it's throat. Typical progressive logic.  Implement a terrible system that fails to accomplish it's goal.  Blame Republicans because their system didn't work and then demand trillions to keep throwing into the failing system and continuing to make things worse and raise prices for everyone.  

We've seen it play out time and time again in blue cities.  Democrats do what they want and then blame Republicans when it makes things inevitably worse.  We see it in Chicago and its the exact playbook that  Mamdani will run in New York. 

 
 
 
Snuffy
Professor Participates
4.1.4  Snuffy  replied to  Sean Treacy @4.1.3    last year
These were emergency covid subsidies that democrats originally voted to kill. 

Actually those emergency subsidies were passed as part of the Inflation Reduction Act which the Democrats passed as a reconciliation bill which by it's requirements must have an end date. The only way the Democrats could have passed it was via the reconciliation process as no Republicans in the Senate voted to pass. So it was always going to be another situation where politicians kicked the can down the road hoping that future Congress would continue it.

But as this was an emergency bill passed for Covid relief, those extended subsidies should end as the Covid emergency has been officially ended. Add to that the simple fact that the national debt hit another milestone recently, we cannot continue to borrow money. We are in a period where we are not involved in a war and do not have any national emergencies occurring so we should not be running $1 Trillion plus deficits. If Congress cannot get our fiscal house in order they all need to be voted out of office. 

Yet the sheep will continue to vote for their wolf...   sigh

 
 
 
Tacos!
Professor Guide
4.1.5  Tacos!  replied to  Sean Treacy @4.1.3    last year
But it shows you how big of  a failure the ACA is

There is lots that could be fixed, or better alternative systems to replace it. So let’s do that. But only a MORON just cuts everything with nothing to replace it ready to go.

 
 
 
TᵢG
Professor Principal
4.1.6  TᵢG  replied to  Tacos! @4.1.5    last year

... or a psychopath who flat out does not give a shit about other people.

 
 

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