The government of Donald Trump dismissed the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Caleb Vitello, previously appointed by the president, on Friday. This decision was made due to growing frustration over what they see as a slow pace in the deportation of migrants, U.S. media reported.
The firing of Vitello, a veteran ICE official, comes after the ousting of two other high-ranking agency officials earlier this month. The government is expected to announce a new interim leader soon and expand the staff dedicated to immigration issues, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Both Trump and his border czar, Tom Homan, have expressed frustration with ICE's results during the first month of the Administration. In some cases, minimum quotas for arrests of undocumented migrants have been imposed, such as 75 arrests per office per day.
The Administration plans to establish a deportation center in Fort Bliss, near El Paso (Texas), with the capacity to hold 10,000 people while their expulsion is processed. The creation of detention centers across the country is also anticipated, officials told The New York Times. These facilities would be in addition to the naval base at Guantanamo, enabled by Trump with an executive order to hold up to 30,000 detained undocumented migrants.
Caleb Vitello, the now former acting head of ICE, has been reassigned to a new position where he will oversee all operations on the ground and law enforcement related to finding, arresting, and deporting illegal foreigners, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security informed Politico.
