News from Wall Street Journal. Really!
As Art Buchwald oft said, “You can't make this stuff up.”
"… officials across ICE say [DHS Secretary Kristi] Noem and [2016 Trump campaign manager who has been repeatedly romantically linked to Noem, Corey] Lewandowski have directed them to use a $170 billion infusion of cash from Congress to launch splashy ideas that have proven ineffective or impractical.
"… A few weeks ago, the pair ordered ICE officials to buy 10 737 jets from Spirit Airlines that they said would be used to boost deportation flights—and for their own travel, according to people familiar with the matter….
"Once the officials looked into the proposal, they learned that Spirit, which filed for bankruptcy for a second time in August, didn’t own the planes. The planes also don’t have engines ... "
Infighting at DHS Is Complicating Trump’s Deportation Push
Border Patrol veterans have replaced ICE leaders in field offices across the country in recent weeks
Michelle Hackman, Josh Dawsey and Tarini Parti
Nov. 7, 2025 12:00 pm ET
White House border czar Tom Homan preparing to address the media outside the White House last month.
Quick Summary
DHS is experiencing internal conflict regarding deportation tactics, with traditional methods clashing with more aggressive, attention-grabbing operations.
WASHINGTON—Pressure from the White House to speed up the pace of deportations has spawned infighting at the Department of Homeland Security over which tactics to use to remove more people from the U.S., according to people familiar with the matter.
Longtime immigration officials, led by President Trump’s border czar Tom Homan and Todd Lyons, the director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, want to rely on traditional methods including using police research to develop target lists, and to give priority to people with criminal histories, according to people familiar with their thinking. ICE is typically the primary agency responsible for enforcing immigration laws inside the U.S.
Their approach has collided with that of DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and top adviser Corey Lewandowski, who have opted for large, attention-grabbing operations such as the one in Chicago that are meant to push migrants to self-deport, according to people familiar with the matter. While Homan has the ear of the president and remains influential at the White House, Noem and Lewandowski have direct authority over personnel and policy decisions, those people said.
As the administration looked for ways to boost deportations, Noem elevated Greg Bovino, a U.S. Border Patrol veteran, to lead the department’s mission in Los Angeles and then Chicago. His displays of militarized enforcement and clashes with protesters, which he documents in social-media videos, have earned plaudits from the pair, who have given him wide latitude to run his own operation.
In Chicago, Bovino and his agents—trained to pursue migrants and drug smugglers through rugged border terrain—have largely supplanted ICE, which has been delegated to supporting his mission. His deployment tests what many consider the traditional role of his police force. Illegal crossings at the southern border have reached historic lows, and agents long tasked with guarding that stretch now patrol faraway cities.
DHS leadership liked what they saw in Chicago so much that, in recent weeks, they have moved to fire several ICE leaders in field offices across the country and replace them with Border Patrol veterans who will bring their more aggressive approach to ICE operations, according to people familiar with the matter.
Trump has said the tactics in Chicago are what he’s looking for. In a “60 Minutes” interview that aired over the weekend, Trump was asked if the Chicago operation had gone too far. “I think they haven’t gone far enough,” Trump said.
Even though the Chicago operation has gained widespread public attention, it has proved inefficient in significantly boosting arrest numbers. As of late October, ICE and Customs and Border Protection had made 3,000 arrests in Chicago over two months—the same number that the White House has demanded they make a day.
The disagreement over tactics shows how officials are struggling to fulfill Trump’s ambitious deportation goals. He has promised one million deportations in his first year—a target he is expected to miss by a wide margin. Some U.S. officials and allies of the administration say the infighting has wasted resources, and disagree with Noem’s approach.
“You’re never going to be able to achieve the president’s campaign promise with mass communication rather than deportation,” said Mike Howell, president of the Oversight Project, an outside conservative group that is monitoring deportations and trying to keep them on track.
A spokeswoman for DHS denied there are divisions within the department, saying the administration is on pace to shatter records and deport 600,000 people by the end of Trump’s first year.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem at the National Palace in Mexico City earlier this year, walking beside Mexico’s Foreign Minister Juan Ramón de la Fuente, left, and Corey Lewandowski, far right. Alex Brandon/Press Pool
In an interview, Bovino said Border Patrol agents were moving at a faster pace than ICE, but that DHS was united.
“ICE are our partners,” he said. ”A lot of those agents, those are typically long-term investigative agents. Border Patrol, we are not a long-term investigative agency. We’re good at turn and burn.”
For months, federal agents have been making roughly 1,200 to 1,500 arrests a day—half the daily quota the White House set for them—though agents from across the federal government were reassigned to increase numbers. Under the Biden administration, ICE made on average 200 to 600 arrests daily.
Some inside DHS say Bovino’s tactics have gone too far and are inciting a public backlash that is endangering ICE officers. He has also drawn the attention of a federal judge who tried to rein him in.
Critics inside DHS say the more-aggressive tactics embody a pattern of flashy initiatives but lackluster results. Bovino’s agents have been forced to later release many of the people they have taken in, finding out that they are U.S. citizens or have legal protections from being deported, officials have said. Noem said recently no American citizens had been arrested, but at least one citizen has sued the administration in Alabama for arresting him twice and numerous other citizens have reported being detained as well.
More broadly, officials across ICE say Noem and Lewandowski have directed them to use a $170 billion infusion of cash from Congress to launch splashy ideas that have proven ineffective or impractical.
Among the examples some ICE officials have cited: A few weeks ago, the pair ordered ICE officials to buy 10 737 jets from Spirit Airlines that they said would be used to boost deportation flights—and for their own travel, according to people familiar with the matter. Some officials warned the pair that the effort would be prohibitively expensive compared with hiring more flight contractors, the people said.
Once the officials looked into the proposal, they learned that Spirit, which filed for bankruptcy for a second time in August, didn’t own the planes. The planes also don’t have engines, which would need to be purchased separately. The project has since been put on pause, though DHS recently purchased two Gulfstream jets for $200 million, according to Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee, who were notified by the department.
A spokesperson for Spirit didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Portraits of President Trump and Vice President JD Vance at the New York Immigration Court entrance at Federal Plaza.
The DHS spokeswoman said the infusion of funds from Congress had provided “ICE the funding for bold, innovative ways to swiftly remove” migrants. She said some of The Wall Street Journal’s reporting around DHS efforts to purchase those planes was inaccurate but didn’t elaborate.
Earlier in the administration, DHS officials advocated for awarding contracts to private prison companies to boost detention numbers. But Lewandowski and Noem pushed for a focus on signing agreements with state governments to open detention centers and use space on military bases, The Wall Street Journal previously reported. Immigration detention capacity has ticked up only slightly since the spring to a maximum capacity of 70,000 migrants.
At one point over the summer, Homan told Trump of concerns he had heard from senior immigration officials who had complained Noem and Lewandowski’s initiatives were getting in the way of operations, according to people familiar with the matter.
Homan met with Trump and expressed concerns about Lewandowski’s management, according to a senior administration official and others familiar with the incident. Trump subsequently called Lewandowski to question his conduct and tell him to work more productively with others at DHS, the senior administration official said.
It couldn’t be determined how Lewandowski responded.
Write to Michelle Hackman at michelle.hackman@wsj.com, Josh Dawsey at Joshua.Dawsey@WSJ.com and Tarini Parti at tarini.parti@wsj.com
Copyright ©2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Appeared in the November 8, 2025, print edition as 'DHS Friction Tests Deportation Push'.
