As President Donald Trump pursues his goal of the largest deportation campaign in U.S. history, his administration has tapped an unusual range of government agencies to help crack down on illegal immigration. Those collaborators range from the Small Business Administration to stewards of public land.
Immigration enforcement typically falls under the jurisdiction of the Department of Homeland Security. The Monitor has identified about a dozen additional agencies – including several more subagencies – involved in bolstering immigration enforcement in new ways. Those efforts include law enforcement partnerships, data sharing, border militarization, and renewed scrutiny of public benefits.
The whole-of-government approach amounts to “the largest redirection of federal resources and information toward a goal since 9/11,” says Theresa Cardinal Brown, immigration law and policy fellow at Cornell Law School.
Why We Wrote This
In a push to meet President Donald Trump’s goal of deporting 1 million unauthorized immigrants annually, the administration is enlisting agencies not typically involved in immigration enforcement.
The Trump administration has sent FBI agents – along with others at drug and firearms agencies – into the streets to aid immigrant arrests. Military troops have surged to the southern border to shield it from what the White House calls an immigrant “invasion.” And Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has secured a data-sharing agreement with the Internal Revenue Service.
At a minimum, though, enlisting other agencies has helped the administration gain momentum ahead of an influx of new funding from Congress that will expand the ranks of ICE. Yet half a year into Mr. Trump’s term, it’s hard to quantify the effects of the coordinated crackdown on the administration’s goal of 1 million deportations a year, due to a lack of transparent data from the government.
Within the first 100 days, ICE “removed 65,682 aliens, including criminals who threaten public safety and national security,’’ according to an agency press release from April. However, the government hasn’t published comprehensive, monthly immigration enforcement statistics since Mr. Trump returned to the White House.
At the Trump-aligned America First Policy Institute, Julie Kirchner welcomes the change to immigration enforcement. “For decades prior, agencies were working in silos,” says the senior adviser for homeland security and immigration.
Most Americans may be shocked to learn agencies hadn’t been sharing immigration data, says Ms. Kirchner, a former ombudsman for the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services during the first Trump term. “Why wouldn’t you want to use the information that you have to target the criminals?”
Jose Luis Gonzalez/Reuters
Critics of the new collaboration include Jennifer Ibañez Whitlock, senior policy counsel at the National Immigration Law Center, which advocates for low-income immigrants. She sees far-reaching consequences.
“This is actually quite dangerous. … It erodes trust in the government,” says Ms. Whitlock. She says immigrants and U.S. citizens alike will worry about the government’s use of their information. “I think many Americans are rightly going to wonder: ‘What if I become part of the disfavored class?’”
Here’s a list of federal players involved in supporting immigration and border enforcement under the second Trump term.
Department of Agriculture
Unauthorized immigrants are generally barred from many forms of federal assistance, including food stamps. Still, the Department of Agriculture, which oversees that program, has asked states to enhance their verification practices.
This follows a February directive from Mr. Trump, in which he asked federal agencies to enhance scrutiny of public benefits recipients to “prevent taxpayer resources from acting as a magnet and fueling illegal immigration.”
Department of Defense
Mr. Trump began directing the military to aid immigration efforts on his first day back in office. Declaring an emergency at the southern border, he directed the military to surge resources there and help obtain “complete operational control.”
Since the spring, the Defense Department has created “national defense areas” along the border with Mexico, where troops are authorized to detain unauthorized immigrants and others for trespassing. The tax and spending bill signed by Mr. Trump on July 4 allocates $1 billion to the Pentagon for “border support and counter-drug missions,” including these new military zones.
In June, Mr. Trump directed California National Guard members and Marines to the Los Angeles area to protect federal personnel and buildings amid anti-ICE riots, in opposition to Gov. Gavin Newsom. The Pentagon announced Monday the withdrawal of Marines from the city.
The Department of Defense has also offered its aircraft for deportation flights, and is holding immigrants in the U.S. naval station at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
The Pentagon has approved a plan to detain immigrants at military bases in Indiana and New Jersey, according to a July 15 letter reviewed by NPR. A Defense official confirmed to the Monitor the plan to assist Homeland Security in establishing “temporary soft-sided holding facilities” at Camp Atterbury and Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, though the timeline isn’t set.
Leonardo Fernandez Viloria/Reuters
Department of Education
The Department of Education this month announced a crackdown on unauthorized immigrant students via access to certain funds. Through a new rule, the DOE said it would end unauthorized immigrants’ access to career, technical, and adult education programs.
As with other agencies, it’s unclear how many immigrants – including those in the U.S. illegally – have accessed those funds.
Department of Health and Human Services
Health and Human Services is offering access to the personal data of millions of Medicaid enrollees, including home addresses, to the Department of Homeland Security, according to the Associated Press.
That means it could be easier for DHS officials to locate unauthorized immigrants who live in states like California, Illinois, and Washington, where non-U.S. citizens can enroll in Medicaid programs through state funding.
A spokesperson for HHS said the agency, including Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, “take the integrity of the Medicaid program and the protection of American taxpayer dollars extremely seriously.”
In terms of “the recent data sharing between CMS and DHS,” Health and Human Services “acted entirely within its legal authority – and in full compliance with all applicable laws – to ensure that Medicaid benefits are reserved for individuals who are lawfully entitled to receive them,” the spokesperson said.
The agency this month also classified Head Start, an early childhood education and family health program, as “federally funded benefits.” Under this interpretation, HHS says the program is now reserved for U.S. citizens.
Department of Housing and Urban Development
Housing and Urban Development is also following Mr. Trump’s directive to crack down on ineligible public benefits recipients.
Through a new agreement with Homeland Security, HUD seeks to “ensure American people are the only priority when it comes to public housing,” says a spokesperson. It’s unclear how households with a mix of U.S. citizens and unauthorized immigrants may be affected.
Department of the Interior
In April, the Bureau of Land Management transferred the use of around 109,651 acres of federal land along New Mexico’s southern border to the U.S. Army for the creation of a “national defense area.”
The Department of the Interior, which includes the BLM, is transferring more land to the Pentagon for the creation of a new national defense area near Yuma, Arizona, according to the Defense Department.
Department of Justice
Justice’s expanded role in immigration enforcement started early.
On Jan. 23, the Department of Homeland Security gave “authority to investigate and apprehend illegal aliens” to officials of the U.S. Marshals Service, Drug Enforcement Administration, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and Federal Bureau of Prisons. Those individuals all answer to the Justice Department.
Since the 1980s, the DOJ has also run the country’s immigration courts. Recently, immigration judges have been dismissing some cases of immigrants, at the request of government prosecutors. Those immigrants are then targeted for arrest, often at the courthouse, according to reports across the country.
Meanwhile, the attorney general is also suing “sanctuary” jurisdictions across the country over local limitations placed on immigration enforcement.
Department of Labor
The Department of Labor issued new guidance this month to ensure that unauthorized immigrants don’t access federal workforce development resources and related grants.
Department of the Treasury
Within the Department of the Treasury, the Internal Revenue Service has entered into a data-sharing agreement with ICE, reportedly prompting the resignation of an interim agency head. Despite concerns by critics around legality and privacy, a federal judge in May upheld the plan.
U.S. workers, including many unauthorized immigrants, interact with the IRS when they pay their taxes. But a separate component of the agency – the IRS Criminal Investigation unit – is also now assisting with immigration enforcement, reports the Government Executive. The IRS did not respond to clarifying questions about its new roles.
International Boundary and Water Commission
This agency applies certain treaties between the U.S. and Mexico, and seeks to settle water wars. In May, the IBWC transferred around 2,000 acres in West Texas, including part of the Rio Grande, to the U.S. Army. This became a second “national defense area” along the southern border.
Since June, the agency has transferred more land to the Pentagon for the creation of a separate national defense area in South Texas, around 250 miles along the Rio Grande, according to Mark Kinkade, director of public affairs at the Air Force Installation and Mission Support Center.
Small Business Administration
In March, the Small Business Administration announced it would start requiring citizenship verification on loan applications. It also plans to move regional offices out of six cities that “do not comply” with ICE: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Denver, New York, and Seattle. New locations haven’t yet been announced.
U.S. Postal Service
The Monitor reached out to the U.S. Postal Service after an April report that the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, a law enforcement unit, was involved with immigration enforcement through participation in a task force with the Department of Homeland Security. The Washington Post reported that immigration officials want to use package- and mail-tracking information and credit card data from the Postal Service, among other information sharing.
Michael Martel, a spokesperson for the agency, says that the Postal Inspection Service has participated in similar task forces for decades. The Postal Service “has not provided the Department of Homeland Security with direct access to any system, database, or records for the purpose of immigration enforcement,” Mr. Martel said in an email.
