WASHINGTON—When Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin decided to halt most vehicle stops by federal immigration officials, he didn’t have a chance to brief President Trump before news of the decision started to leak.
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Mullin tweeted Wednesday evening: “President Trump and I are on the same page. We want our @ICEgov officers to have all options available to keep them safe while executing our mission of deporting as many illegal alien criminals from our country as possible.”
A DHS spokeswoman, asked to comment, referred to the secretary’s tweet.
Venturella, the acting ICE director, gambled that arrests could ramp back up in a quieter and more orderly way, by more smartly pursuing immigrant targets such as people newly released from state and local jails. His approach was a sharp departure from the past year, when officers would be sent out on roving patrols through city streets, looking for immigrants to arrest and catching public attention.
The new approach allowed the administration to tout higher arrest numbers without, until this week, provoking the sort of public outrage that met with frequent clashes between federal immigration officers and protesters.
Mullin didn’t address the change in policy in a statement issued Wednesday. But the president’s social-media post illustrated the challenge that Mullin faces, as he leads the agency tasked with carrying out Trump’s campaign promise of mass deportations.
Mullin during his confirmation hearing promised to keep his agency out of the headlines and has sought to maintain a lower profile ahead of the November midterms.
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But no one had briefed Trump on the decision, the people said. He only caught wind of it from critical coverage on cable TV and furious outside allies, who took to social media to register their disapproval. Mike Davis, a Trump ally, posted on X that Mullin had caused headaches for Trump, listing the traffic stop suspension as an example. “Mullin should find another job,” Davis wrote.
So far this year, the president has waffled on how aggressively to steer his administration on immigration. An earlier push to ramp up arrests culminated in the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis, and Trump instructed his administration to pull back from its most confrontational enforcement tactics.
But in this case, Trump felt that the halt of nearly all vehicle stops appeared to be a retreat by his administration that made them look weak on the issue. Trump ultimately overruled Mullin, writing on Truth Social Wednesday morning: “We must be strong, tough, and smart, and we CANNOT give up one of I.C.E.’s most important and effective Crime Fighting tools.”
The rapid U-turn highlighted an ongoing tug of war among Trump’s top advisers on how far to push the envelope.
Trump’s White House Border Czar Tom Homan disagreed with the call to suspend vehicle stops, according to people familiar with the matter. He had privately argued that the move would essentially bring ICE arrests to a halt, and officers could be given more training without a blanket ban on stopping cars.
The two fatal shootings this past week happened in part because ICE, at the White House’s direction, has been attempting to meet a quota of 2,000 arrests a day. ICE officers have been asked to work overtime and are under tremendous pressure to carry out arrests.
But the president has seen immigration as one of his strongest political issues. About 54% of voters disapprove of Trump’s handling of immigration, while 42 % approve, according to polling from Cook Political Report.
“I wanted to speak about the great job I’ve done on the border, and my people said, ‘Sir, nobody cares about that’,” Trump told reporters in June. “I said, ‘What do you mean? I got elected on that, twice.’”
Write to Michelle Hackman at michelle.hackman@wsj.com and Marianne LeVine at marianne.levine@wsj.com
