A Phoenix ICE leader is among a handful of ICE officials in major cities who have reportedly been reassigned by the federal government.
As first reported by the Washington Examiner this week, Phoenix Field Office Director John Cantu is one of five officers who were moved to other parts of the country.
Other officers were moved from Denver, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and San Diego.
ICE and Border Patrol are both part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, but Border Patrol is traditionally tasked with enforcing federal immigration law at the border. ICE deals with immigration enforcement inside the country.
The recently passed federal funding bill also included billions of dollars in new funding for ICE and DHS.
Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in an interview with Fox News that with that new funding, her department wants to “really surge those arrest numbers.” McLaughlin also spoke about using Border Patrol agents in the country’s interior.
“We now have Border Patrol agents who are actually making arrests in the interior of our country. You're seeing that out of Los Angeles, you're seeing that out of Chicago, and now we’re getting an even greater workforce, so I think you're going to be seeing more surges in arrests as well.”
A spokesperson for DHS would not say whether Cantu’s reassignment is due to a reportedly insufficient number of deportations.
DHS also did not answer whether Cantu and other ICE officers will be replaced by Border Patrol agents.
Instead, DHS directed our reporter to a tweet by McLaughlin.
“This is one team, one fight. President Trump has a brilliant, tenacious team led by @Sec_Noem to deliver on the American people’s mandate to remove criminal illegal aliens from this country. … As we said, we have no personnel changes to announce right now but we remain laser focused on RESULTS and we will deliver,” McLaughlin posted in response to the story.
