“It became a contest of how many deportations could be reported”: ICE employee resigns over agency’s direction

A former Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) employee has resigned, explaining his decision to various outlets as a moral decision. Adam Boyd worked for the Department of Homeland Security, which has come under immense scrutiny since the Trump administration’s initiative, a campaign of mass deportation. In June, Deputy Chief of Staff Stephan Miller met with leaders at ICE, where he assailed them for not making enough arrests. The Atlantic initially reported the case of Adam Boyd.

The White House has set arrest targets for ICE of 3,000 a day, a number that many agents feel is impossible to reach. What has been seen in communities around the country is that meeting those targets is impossible without detaining those with a legal right to be in the country, including US citizens.

A competition over numbers

Upon his departure, he told The Atlantic that “good attorneys” are still needed at ICE. "There are drug traffickers and national-security threats and human-rights violators in our country who need to be dealt with," explained Boyd. However, he felt that the focus on those actors had been replaced with a numbers game. “It became a contest of how many deportations could be reported to Stephen Miller by December,” Boyd said.

Judge Frimpong temporarily blocks discriminatory immigration arrests in California

Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong, a judge for the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, has issued a temporary restraining order prohibiting indiscriminate immigration arrests in the state. The ruling bars federal immigration agents from stopping individuals based solely on accent, language, skin color, ethnicity, or location, such as bus stops or agricultural sites.

The order, which is currently valid for ten days, comes amid growing pressure from civil rights groups and local officials who are urging the court to extend the protections.

“Today, justice has prevailed,” said Governor Gavin Newsom following the ruling.“The court’s decision puts a temporary stop to the violation of people’s rights and racial profiling by immigration officers. California stands on the side of the law and the principles our founding fathers built this country on. I call on the Trump administration to do the same.”

Judge Frimpong’s decision comes at a time of heightened tension in California, following a series of arbitrary arrests linked to immigration enforcement under the Trump administration. Notably, two recent raids on cannabis farms in Camarillo and Carpinteria resulted in the arrest of 200 immigrants and left one person dead.

DHS pushes back

In response, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) expressed disagreement with the ruling, claiming that immigration agents have never detained individuals without legal justification and describing their personnel as “brave.”

A DHS spokesperson also criticized the court’s decision as an overreach, stating that immigration enforcement is a matter for the executive branch, not the judiciary. “A district judge is undermining the will of the American people. America’s brave men and women are removing murderers, MS-13 gang members, pedophiles, rapists—truly the worst of the worst from Golden State communities. LAW AND ORDER WILL PREVAIL!” wrote the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) via social media.

In just the past month, immigration agents have detained nearly 2,800 undocumented immigrants, according to official DHS figures. Of those, 209 have been deported via removal flights.

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