Trump Administration Redirects Border Agents to Support Nationwide Deportation Raids
Thousands of officers typically assigned to protect the nation’s borders and ports of entry have been pulled from their regular posts to assist with sweeping immigration raids across U.S. cities, according to an internal Department of Homeland Security memo marked “sensitive.”
Roughly 2,000 personnel primarily from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) have been reassigned to work under U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as part of the administration’s push to dramatically increase deportations. The effort reflects the White House’s broader objective to ramp up immigration enforcement, even at the cost of reducing resources dedicated to combating terrorism, drug smuggling, and other cross-border threats.
The memo outlines that, as of late June, CBP had reassigned more than 1,100 of its nearly 19,000 Border Patrol agents and over 800 of its 26,000 port officers to ICE-led operations. The move is highly unusual, as CBP’s primary mandate is to monitor border security and facilitate legal trade and travel not to conduct immigration sweeps deep inside American cities.
These deployments are supporting what President Trump has described as “the largest deportation program in American history,” and include tactical support such as surveillance, planning, and apprehension operations.
Gil Kerlikowske, former CBP commissioner during the Obama administration, warned that stripping personnel from the nation’s front lines could carry serious consequences particularly in the fight against fentanyl and other drugs smuggled through legal ports of entry.
“If you’ve taken 800 agents off the ports of entry, that can cause a significant problem,” Kerlikowske said. “The ports are exactly where the fentanyl comes in. And now those agents are gone.”
He also raised concern about the training mismatch, with CBP officers now involved in crowded urban enforcement operations rather than their typical duties on the border. One recent operation in Los Angeles saw heavily armed Border Patrol agents sweep through MacArthur Park, reportedly alarming local residents and prompting children to flee the area.
“Their training and experience is on the border,” Kerlikowske emphasized. “Not policing American cities.”
Nearly 300 members of CBP’s elite special operations unit have been reassigned to assist ICE in tasks such as fugitive apprehensions, tactical entry, and surveillance. Many are operating in major cities including Miami, Seattle, Houston, New Orleans, San Antonio, and Boston.
In California, nearly 200 CBP officers participated in “Operation Los Angeles,” a series of immigration raids that triggered protests and calls for accountability.
An additional 600 agents were assigned to “Operation At Large,” a nationwide plan to locate and detain undocumented individuals. The redeployment also includes 32 aircraft and more than 100 pilots and agents from CBP’s air-and-marine division, typically responsible for intercepting illicit cargo at the borders. With only 1,800 agents and support staff in that unit, the diversion marks a significant resource shift.
As the Trump administration continues its aggressive enforcement strategy, critics argue that border security and counterterrorism efforts are being sidelined raising long-term concerns about national readiness and public trust.