A major ICE shake-up is reportedly underway affecting at least half of the agency’s top leadership positions

The current official, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter and spoke on condition of anonymity, said 12 ICE field directors — officers who run the network of field offices across the country responsible for enforcing immigration laws — have been reassigned.

Half will be replaced by current or retired Customs and Border Protection officers, while the other half will be replaced by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, current and former officials said. The current official said the changes were initiated by the Department of Homeland Security, without specifying which cities were affected.

On top of the 12 reappointments, leaders in four other cities were replaced through retirement or other circumstances, said the former official, who has direct knowledge of the changes and spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss information that was not supposed to be made public. He said the cities include major immigration enforcement targets such as Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington.

He added that ICE leadership has discussed the changes with other Trump administration officials for some time as part of a broad review of the agency.

It was not immediately clear what led to the personnel changes. But it does signal greater integration of Border Patrol agents into ICE at a time when CBP has been accused of using heavy-handed immigration enforcement tactics.

A major change in Trump’s leadership of immigration enforcement

With a total of 25 field offices across the country, the reassignments amount to a turnover of about half or more of the top staff carrying out the president’s tough immigration enforcement plans, which have seen a massive deployment of law enforcement in major U.S. cities, thousands of arrests and growing fear among residents, especially in immigrant communities.

The Department of Homeland Security and the White House did not comment on the reassignments, each stressing instead that all immigration enforcement elements are working as a team.

Placing CBP officers in senior positions within ICE would create an expanded role for an agency that is already at the forefront of many of the aggressive tactics seen both in Los Angeles and now in Chicago.

CBP officers — specifically Border Patrol agents — have carried out some of the most controversial operations as part of anti-immigration crackdowns in both cities, including a recent raid in Chicago in which officers rappelled onto a building in an apartment complex from a helicopter. Border Patrol agents also got out of a moving truck, chased people and patrolled downtown Chicago.

Border Patrol agents protect the lands and waters between official border crossings to prevent human trafficking, drug smuggling or other types of contraband from entering U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, since its establishment in 2003, has been the primary agency responsible for enforcing immigration laws within the country.

But during the Trump administration, Border Patrol agents have been participating in immigration enforcement operations across the country, far from their traditional duties.

Gregory Bovino, a Border Patrol sector chief from California who headed Border Patrol operations in both cities, is accused of throwing tear gas grenades at protesters and took the stand Tuesday as a defendant in a federal lawsuit over whether federal officials used excessive force in Chicago.

ICE says its agents carry out “targeted enforcement operations,” which often take hours to monitor people they are trying to remove from the country.

It’s the latest in a series of personnel changes

This is the third change at ICE since Trump took office, reflecting the importance of the agency’s role in implementing the president’s vision.

In February, the Department of Homeland Security reassigned Caleb Vitiello, acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, to another position. Todd Lyons, a veteran ICE agent, was later announced as the agency’s new acting head, a position he still holds.

Then in May, ICE announced the reassignment of two senior officials who head the agency’s main branches.

DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin did not comment Tuesday on the personnel changes, but said in a statement that the department remained “focused on results and we will get them.”

“This is one team, one fight,” she said. “President (Donald) Trump has a brilliant and diligent team led by Secretary (Kristi) Noem to carry out the mandate of the American people to remove criminal illegal aliens from this country.”

“The President’s entire team is working in unison to implement the President’s policy agenda, and the tremendous results from securing the border to deporting criminal illegal aliens speak for themselves,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said in an emailed statement.

___

Spagat reported from Chicago.