gotchanewsdaily.com 
Washington
CNN
—
In the first weeks of the new Trump administration, the White House has boasted about the arrests of thousands of undocumented immigrants. But behind the scenes, senior officials have expressed frustration with Immigration and Customs Enforcement in tense calls for not meeting its marks, according to multiple sources familiar with the discussions.
“They’re treading water. They’re way behind,” a Trump administration official told CNN, referring to ICE. The calls have included White House deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller, border czar Tom Homan, and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, along with various federal agencies involved in the enforcement effort.
“It’s not pretty,” the official said of the calls.
President Donald Trump kicked off his second term in office with an ambitious immigration agenda, promising to deport millions of undocumented immigrants and seal off the US southern border. Since then, Trump administration officials have swiftly moved to strip temporary protections for migrants and delegate more authority to federal and state partners.
More than 8,000 people have been arrested by federal immigration authorities since Trump’s inauguration. Administration officials haven’t shared exactly how many undocumented immigrants they’re aiming to arrest this year, but daily apprehensions have already surpassed last year’s daily average under President Joe Biden.
Trump administration officials are weighing a slate of new immigration measures, including borrowing ideas from Texas like adding buoys in the Rio Grande and assessing more military bases to hold migrants. They are also discussing plans to send migrants from Africa to another country, akin to El Salvador’s agreement to take migrants from other countries, according to two sources familiar with the planning.
But Trump’s stated goals are also meeting the on-the-ground realities and challenges that have bogged down federal immigration enforcement authorities for years.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed Wednesday that 461 immigrants detained in the wave of arrests have been released for several reasons, including lack of detention space.
“I have a meeting with ICE leadership today to find out exactly who was released and why,” Homan told reporters Thursday.
Asked if ICE was doing enough, he said: “They’re doing a great job. We got to do more.”
Multiple sources described tremendous pressure on ICE officers to deliver results, including ramping up efforts to target and detain undocumented immigrants with criminal records. Miller has previously described quotas on ICE field offices as a “floor, not a ceiling.”
“We’re having to perform. It’s not just the leadership. The expectation is that every officer out there is giving 100 percent,” another Trump administration official said.
In a statement criticizing the Biden administration, White House spokesman Kush Desai said, “The Trump administration has re-established a no-nonsense enforcement of and respect for the immigration laws of the United States.”
“Hundreds of violent, predatory, and gang-affiliated criminal illegal aliens have already been rounded up and deported by ICE since President Trump took office – and the Trump administration is aligned on securing our borders and ensuring that mass deportations are conducted quickly and effectively to put Americans and America First,” he said.
CNN reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for comment.
On Thursday, Leavitt told Fox News Trump is “very pleased” with Homan, Miller, and Noem.
“But as I’ve said before, we will not get complacent, and the president has made this very bold promise to the American people, and he expects everybody across DHS and here at the White House to continue to work hard every day to deport illegal criminals from American communities,” she added.
The White House and ICE, among several other federal agencies, have splashed multiple photos and videos of their enforcement actions on social media in a PR blitz showcasing the administration’s push to execute on Trump’s pledge.
Deportation flights are still on a pace similar to the weeks prior to Trump taking office, despite an increase in arrests, since the flights often take time to line up.
The administration has mobilized wide swaths of the federal government to arrest and detain undocumented immigrants, but challenges remain.
ICE faces multiple challenges. The agency has limited resources and personnel, and has had to adjust to the abrupt change from Biden’s enforcement posture to Trump’s, sources said.
The agency is currently funded for around 40,000 detention beds and has around 6,000 immigration enforcement officers. As of Wednesday, ICE was operating over capacity, hovering around 108% with nearly 42,000 people in custody, according to internal government statistics reviewed by CNN.
Senior Trump officials have called on Congress to provide additional funding and also cited Guantanamo Bay as part of the solution to expand space. Planning and construction is already underway to set up tents to temporarily hold 30,000 migrants, an effort that’s expected to take weeks. Guantanamo Bay already hosts a migrant-processing center.
At the request of the Department of Homeland Security, Buckley Space Force Base in Colorado is expected to be used to stage and process immigrants. The facility is manned by ICE, among other agencies. Military bases in Arizona, Kansas, and Texas are also being floated as potential places to temporarily hold people, according to a source familiar.
The use of Border Patrol custody also remains a possibility given the low number of border crossings, though it’s unclear if and when the administration would resort to that.
