WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 White House border czar Tom Homan\u2019s announcement that enforcement in Minnesota was being unified under U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement followed months of internal grumbling and infighting among agencies about how to carry out President Donald Trump\u2019s mass deportation campaign.<\/p>\n
Since it was created in 2003, ICE has conducted street arrests through \u201ctargeted enforcement.\u201d Homan uses that phrase repeatedly to describe narrowly tailored operations with specific, individual targets, in contrast to the broad sweeps that had become more common under Border Patrol direction in Los Angeles, Chicago, Minnesota and elsewhere.<\/p>\n
It is unclear how the agency friction may have influenced the leadership shift. But the change shines a light on how the two main agencies behind Trump\u2019s centerpiece deportation agenda have at times clashed over styles and tactics.<\/p>\n
The switch comes at a time when support for ICE is sliding, with a growing number of<\/a> Americans saying the agency has become too aggressive. In Congress, the Department of Homeland Security is increasingly under attack<\/a> by Democrats who want to rein in immigration enforcement. <\/p>\n While declaring the Twin Cities operation a success, Homan on Wednesday acknowledged that it was imperfect and said consolidating operations under ICE\u2019s enforcement and removal operations unit was an effort toward \u201cmaking sure we follow the rules.\u201d Trump sent the former acting ICE director<\/a> to Minnesota last week to de-escalate tensions after two U.S. citizens were fatally shot by federal immigration officers \u2014 one with ICE and the other with Customs and Border Protection. <\/p>\n \u201cWe made this operation more streamlined and we established a unified chain of command, so everybody knows what everybody\u2019s doing,\u201d Homan said at a news conference in Minneapolis. \u201cIn targeted enforcement operations, we go out there. There needs to be a plan.\u201d<\/p>\n Agencies with different missions and approaches<\/p>\n The Border Patrol\u2019s growing role in interior enforcement had fueled tensions within ICE, according to current and former DHS officials. Gregory Bovino, a senior Border Patrol official who was reassigned from Minneapolis last week, embraced a \u201cturn and burn\u201d strategy<\/a> of lightning-quick street sweeps and heavy shows of force that were designed to rack up arrests but often devolved into chaos. <\/p>\n \u201cEvery time you place Border Patrol into interior enforcement the wheels are going to come off,\u201d Darius Reeves, who retired in May as head of ICE\u2019s enforcement and removal operations in Baltimore, said in an interview last year as Bovino\u2019s influence grew.<\/p>\n ICE has also engaged in aggressive tactics that mark a break from the past, especially in Minnesota. An ICE officer fatally shot Renee Good<\/a> in Minneapolis on Jan. 7. Trump administration officials said she tried to run over an officer with her vehicle, an account that state and local officials have rejected. ICE has asserted sweeping power<\/a> to forcibly enter a person\u2019s home to make arrests without a judge\u2019s warrant, among other controversial tactics. <\/p>\n But ICE\u2019s traditional playbook<\/a> involves extensive investigation and surveillance before an arrest, often acting quickly and quietly in predawn vehicle stops or outside a home. An ICE official once compared it to watching paint dry.<\/a><\/p>\n Bovino, in a November interview<\/a>, said the two agencies had different but complementary missions and he compared the relationship to a large metropolitan police department. The Border Patrol was akin to beat cops on roving patrols. ICE was more like detectives, doing investigative work. <\/p>\n Asked about the friction, DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said, \u201cThere is only page: The President\u2019s page. Everyone\u2019s on the same page.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis is one team, and we have one fight to secure the homeland. President Trump has a brilliant, tenacious team led by Secretary (Kristi) Noem to deliver on the American people\u2019s mandate to remove criminal illegal aliens from this country.\u201d<\/p>\n ICE gets blamed for Border Patrol\u2019s tactics, official says<\/p>\n Michael Fisher, chief of the Border Patrol from 2010 to 2015, said last year that his former agency\u2019s tactics were more in line with the Republican administration\u2019s goal of deporting millions of people who entered the United States while Democrat Joe Biden was president.<\/p>\n \u201cHow do you deal with trying to arrest hundreds and hundreds of people in a shift?\u201d Fisher said. \u201cICE agents typically aren\u2019t geared, they don\u2019t have the equipment, they don\u2019t have the training to deal in those environments. The Border Patrol does.\u201d<\/p>\n