ICE agents with desk jobs to be reassigned to field work: report

Thousands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents currently working desk jobs are preparing for possible reassignments to field work as President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming border czar Tom Homan plans to “flood” US sanctuary cities with agents to assist in deportations of illegal immigrants.

The plan could get thousands of paper-pushing officers out of their offices and back onto the streets, arresting illegal immigrants which many of America’s police forces are refusing to do, the New York Post reported. There are a total of 21,000 people working for ICE, The Post noted, including administrative personnel, according to a Department of Homeland Security budget overview.

Sources from a West Coast field office and an East Coast field office told The Post that up to 70 percent of ICE employees work from a desk and that most would be enthusiastic about “catching criminals that Biden let roam freely in the country for the last four years without any consequences.”

Homan has warned cities that won’t cooperate with the deportation of illegal immigrants that he’ll "do the job with or without you.” He has also said that the Trump administration is committed to destroying criminal cartels and urged illegal immigrants who are worried about being sent home to “self-deport.” New Los Angeles Police Department Chief Jim McDonnell said he will not assist in mass deportations.

One source told The Post that he “can’t wait” to return to arresting illegal immigrants while another said that while he’s had no experience making arrests as an ICE agent, he’s done the job when he served with US Customs and Border Patrol. Nonetheless, putting the necessary personnel in place will require the full force of the agency as it will inevitably need to train some of its members who lack field experience and didn’t have much opportunity to learn these skills during the Biden-Harris years, the Post noted.

Homan, who has spent much of his long career as a hands-on agent and not a bureaucrat, told The Post that the resolve of the Trump administration to deport illegals will not be impeded by sanctuary cities with no desire to facilitate that plan. “If they’re not willing to do it then get out of the way — we’re coming,” Homan said, noting that more people will be required to enforce immigration law. “So if I have to flood agents to the sanctuary cities to get the job done then that’s what we’re gonna do.”

There are concerns that ICE will still come up short with resources. “The personnel have to be there to carry out these ‘mass deportations.’ Right now, a lot of units have been depleted,” one ICE source told The Post. “If the fugitive operations street team isn’t making enough arrests, they’ll crack down on them first.”