Trump's deportation campaign has begun
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 27 January 2025
⏱️ 26 minutes
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Summary
Over the weekend, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials received instructions from the White House to ramp up deportations, from a few hundred per day to at least 1,200. This came after President Donald Trump expressed disappointment with the results of his mass deportation campaign so far, according to people with knowledge of the briefings.
The orders significantly increase the chance that officers will engage in more indiscriminate enforcement tactics or face accusations of civil rights violations as they strain to meet quotas, according to current and former ICE officials.
Host Martine Powers speaks with immigration reporter Nick Miroff about what these new deportation quotas mean for the country, and the obstacles the Trump administration could face in making these goals a reality.
Today’s show was produced by Emma Talkoff with help from Ariel Plotnick. It was edited by Maggie Penman and mixed by Sam Bair.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | On Saturday, senior ICE officials received instructions from the White House to ramp up deportations. |
| 0:09.1 | They were told they had new quotas to hit. Each of the agency's field offices should arrest 75 people every day. |
| 0:17.4 | The target would be 12 or 1,500 people total every day nationwide. The reason they were given, |
| 0:24.6 | President Trump felt like in the first week or so of his second administration, deportations were |
| 0:29.5 | happening too slowly. From the newsroom of the Washington Post, this is Post reports. I'm |
| 0:37.3 | Martine Powers. It's Monday, January 27th. Today, we're going to be a new one of the newsroom of the Washington Post, this is Post reports. I'm Martine Powers. |
| 0:38.5 | It's Monday, January 27th. |
| 0:41.2 | Today, we hear from immigration reporter Nick Miroff about the Trump administration's plan to rapidly ramp up deportations. |
| 0:48.9 | And what obstacles it might face. |
| 1:05.6 | So, Nick, tell me more about these quotas that were communicated on Saturday. |
| 1:08.7 | Like, what exactly are they directing ICE officials to do? |
| 1:15.7 | Well, let's remember that President Trump has promised to deport millions of criminals, as he has said, |
| 1:19.7 | and he has promised the largest mass deportation operation in U.S. history. |
| 1:24.5 | I will rescue every city in town that has been invaded and conquered, |
| 1:29.8 | and we will put these vicious and bloodthirsty criminals in jail or kick them the hell out of our country. And so what we've seen over the course of the first early |
| 1:36.1 | days of his administration is the number of people taken into custody by ICE has slowly climbed |
| 1:41.1 | from about 300 during Trump's first day in office to more than 900 on Sunday. |
| 1:46.9 | And that is by far the largest number of people arrested by ICE that I can remember in a single day. |
| 1:51.9 | We should also keep in mind, though, that if you are going to try to deport a million people in one year, |
| 1:57.3 | you would have to arrest at least 2,700 people a day. So even with those much more |
| 2:04.0 | intense and aggressive operations by ICE, it's still not going to get them the kinds of lofty |
| 2:09.2 | numbers that Trump has promised. And so despite the fact that he has been told by DHS officials |
... |
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