Under President Donald Trump, immigration enforcement has already taken a dark and aggressive turn. Reports of masked, unidentified agents sweeping people into unmarked vehicles have become disturbingly common. But according to one immigration expert, the worst might still be ahead.
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a fellow at the National Immigration Center, is warning that the Trump administration’s latest shake-up inside U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) could push things to an entirely new level.
Citing a report from Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin, Reichlin-Melnick said the administration is in the middle of a “mass removal of ICE leadership around the country.” Melugin reported, “Per four senior DHS & Trump admin sources, a mass removal of ICE leadership around the country is underway, with up to 12 ICE field office chiefs being removed & reassigned in an effort to increase deportation numbers.”
According to Melugin, the overhaul is being “spearheaded by Corey Lewandowski,” a longtime Trump confidant, and “a handful of the ICE Chiefs will likely be replaced by Border Patrol & CBP officials, some of whom will be hand-picked by aggressive & controversial Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino.”
That’s not just a bureaucratic shuffle — it’s a complete culture shift inside one of the most powerful enforcement agencies in the country. ICE and Border Patrol have always had different approaches. ICE, for all its controversies, typically focuses on targeted arrests.
As Melugin explained, “Generally speaking, ICE typically conducts very targeted operations, largely going after criminal illegal aliens or those with deportation orders, but almost always knowing who they are targeting for arrest, often conducting surveillance to learn their schedules before and waiting hours before arresting them if needed.”
Border Patrol, however, plays by a different set of rules — and has taken an even harder edge under Trump. “Border Patrol, under Trump 2.0 … has been extremely aggressive and has been at the forefront of some of the most controversial immigration enforcement operations we’ve seen so far,” Melugin wrote. “Carrying out roving patrols in Los Angeles, Chicago, etc, often at Home Depot, car washes, flea markets etc, leading to a handful of federal judges around the country issuing injunctions against them.”
That’s exactly what has Reichlin-Melnick sounding the alarm.
“HUGE moment. ICE leadership is being purged tonight,” he wrote on X. “The old guard, which prioritized targeted enforcement operations aimed at people with criminal records, is being replaced with Border Patrol and Greg Bovino’s ‘Midway Blitz’ style.”
And his warning couldn’t be clearer: “Think things are bad now? It’ll get worse.”
If this leadership purge plays out the way it appears, ICE could soon operate less like a law enforcement agency and more like a strike force — one that prioritizes numbers over nuance. For immigrant communities already living under constant fear, Reichlin-Melnick’s message is chilling: the crackdown isn’t slowing down. It’s accelerating.
