White House says immigration crackdown will continue after midterms

The White House says it will not slow immigration arrests and deportations after the midterm elections, and U.S. officials told CBS News that Stephen Miller’s promotion to chief of staff points to a continued crackdown.

“This administration will not slow down its efforts to arrest and deport criminal illegal aliens who terrorize our communities,” White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis told CBS News. “There has never been a President stronger on immigration enforcement than President Trump.”

The Department of Homeland Security gave the same message. “ICE is NOT backing away or slowing down,” a spokesperson told CBS News. The department said it would continue enforcing immigration laws and removing people it described as “criminal illegal aliens.”

Republicans suffered heavy losses in the midterms, including in historically conservative Texas, where Latino voters swung toward Democrats. Exit polls cited by the BBC ranked immigration third among voters’ concerns, after the economy and the state of democracy. CBS News reported that 58% of voters nationwide said the administration’s deportation crackdown had “gone too far.” Democrats won majorities in both chambers of Congress, according to the BBC.

Multiple U.S. officials told CBS News that DHS and Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials had received no instructions to reduce enforcement since the election. In recent weeks, ICE officials were told to aim for about 19,000 arrests a week, or roughly 2,700 a day, up from an earlier target of 2,000 a day, agency sources told CBS News. The higher target was set before the midterms.

Asked whether the election would bring a pullback with Miller as chief of staff, one official told CBS News: “I would count on the opposite.” The officials said the administration attributed its losses largely to concerns about the economy, affordability and the war with Iran, rather than immigration enforcement.

Vice-President JD Vance had suggested a possible adjustment after the vote. “I’m open to the idea that we should change enforcement – by focusing more on businesses that hire illegal labour, for instance,” he wrote online, according to the BBC. The White House’s subsequent statements, however, said arrests and deportations would not slow.

Miller has been a leading architect of Trump’s immigration policies since his first administration. As deputy chief of staff and homeland security adviser in the second, he helped drive policies that effectively closed the asylum system, shut down refugee admissions with a notable exemption for White South Africans, and tightened access to legal immigration benefits, according to CBS News. Immigration operations have drawn protests, including in Minneapolis, where federal immigration officials killed two U.S. citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti.

Democrats’ congressional majorities could bring subpoenas, oversight hearings and attempts to limit enforcement funding, Theresa Cardinal Brown, a former DHS immigration official, told CBS News. She said some local governments might also limit cooperation with ICE. But she noted that Trump could veto restrictions and that ICE received $75 billion in funding through 2029 under legislation he signed last year.

“They’re going to continue apace,” Cardinal Brown said. “They have the money. They have the resources.”