The Trump administration is unlikely to scale back its aggressive crackdown on illegal immigration following the results of the midterm elections, multiple U.S. officials told CBS News, citing the elevation of immigration hawk Stephen Miller as White House chief of staff.
Republicans suffered huge losses across the country on Election Day, including in some historically red states like Texas. Exit polls indicated that immigration was one of the top issues, alongside the economy, among Texas Latinos, who swung heavily toward Democrats. And 58% of voters nationwide said the Trump administration’s deportation crackdown had “gone too far.”
In January, Democratic lawmakers will take control of both chambers of Congress and assume sweeping powers to investigate the administration’s immigration crackdown and its most controversial policies.
Still, officials at the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement have not received instructions to reduce immigration enforcement since the election, the sources said, requesting anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
In recent weeks, ICE officials have been instructed to try to carry out around 19,000 arrests per week, or about 2,700 per day, an increase from a prior 2,000 daily arrest target, agency sources told CBS News. That target was set before the midterms.
The U.S. officials cited Miller’s appointment to the top post in the White House as a clear indication the Trump administration is likely to continue ICE’s deportation blitz, as well as its quieter yet far-reaching campaign to sharply restrict legal immigration.
Asked if the midterms would usher in a pullback in immigration enforcement, one of the officials responded, “I would count on the opposite” with Miller as chief of staff.
The sources also said the administration believes the stunning electoral losses last week were largely driven by concerns about the economy, affordability and the war with Iran — not its immigration crackdown.
“This administration will not slow down its efforts to arrest and deport criminal illegal aliens who terrorize our communities. There has never been a President stronger on immigration enforcement than President Trump,” White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis told CBS News.
Bis cited the Trump administration’s efforts to bolster security at the U.S.-Mexico border, where illegal crossings have plunged to historically low levels after soaring to record highs under former President Joe Biden’s tenure.
Miller has been seen as a loyal foot soldier in President Trump’s inner circle for a decade, since his successful 2016 presidential campaign, when he promised to shut down Muslim immigration to the U.S. and dramatically expand deportations of those in the U.S. illegally.
During that time, Miller has solidified himself as the chief architect of Mr. Trump’s hardline immigration policies. Miller was one of Mr. Trump’s top aides during his first administration, when officials banned immigration and travel from Muslim-majority countries and separated thousands of migrant children from their parents as part of a “zero tolerance” crackdown that was abandoned after massive public uproar.
But Miller has greatly expanded his power — and his influence over federal immigration policymaking — since Mr. Trump’s return to the White House.
In less than two years, with Miller as deputy chief of staff and homeland security adviser, the second Trump administration has effectively closed the U.S. asylum system; shut down refugee admissions, with a notable exemption for White South Africans; tightened access to different legal immigration benefits like green cards; and undertaken highly visible ICE and Border Patrol arrest operations across the country.
Those immigration enforcement operations have often triggered widespread community backlash, including in January, when federal immigration officials killed two American citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, during a crackdown in Minneapolis that the administration scaled back following bipartisan outcry.
Miller has publicly floated the idea of suspending habeas corpus — the conditional right for people to challenge unlawful detention — for ICE detainees. Habeas cases have skyrocketed over the past two years, as the Trump administration has greatly narrowed other avenues for those fighting deportation to be released from ICE detention.
In addition to his immigration portfolio, Miller has also played an influential role in the Trump administration’s crackdown on universities and legal groups, and its campaign to investigate allegations of fraud in Democratic-led states like Minnesota.
Theresa Cardinal Brown, an immigration official at DHS during the Obama and Bush administrations, said the Trump administration’s deportation efforts are likely to face some obstacles next year. She expects congressional Democrats to use their new powers to try to rein in ICE, including by issuing a flurry of subpoenas, holding oversight hearings and passing measures to limit immigration enforcement funds.
Cardinal Brown also predicts that some communities and states with newly elected Democratic leaders, like Texas, may scrap or limit policies that allowed or required local law enforcement officials to work with ICE. Last week, Houston’s mayor said he would direct local police to limit their cooperation with ICE, following the election results.
But Cardinal Brown stressed Mr. Trump will likely veto any Democratic attempts to restrict ICE enforcement and noted the agency received $75 billion in funds through 2029 due to the “One Big Beautiful Bill” that the president signed into law last year.
“They’re going to continue apace,” Cardinal Brown said. “They have the money. They have the resources.”
