WASHINGTON — White House pressure to ramp up deportations has sparked rising tension and finger-pointing inside the Department of Homeland Security, with the agency’s secretary, Kristi Noem, and her top adviser blaming subordinates for not hitting arrest quotas and undermining their relationships inside the West Wing, according to two DHS officials with direct knowledge of the matter.
Noem and her close adviser Corey Lewandowski have sought to deflect blame from themselves for any White House frustration with the pace and scope of the deportations, pinning it instead on the leaders of the agencies in charge of immigration enforcement — acting ICE Director Todd Lyons and Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott, the DHS officials said.
Underscoring the turmoil, Scott recently expressed concern to colleagues that Lewandowski is able to monitor his emails, the two officials and another DHS official said, sparking concern among other top staffers that their messages were being reviewed.
“Everyone in leadership is so worried about what they say in email and text,” one of the top staffers said.
As the agency that carries out President Donald Trump’s mass deportations policy — a core tenet of his agenda — DHS is often under intense scrutiny both inside and outside the White House. The rising tensions within DHS come as deportation numbers continue to lag behind the administration’s goals, with Trump nearing the one-year mark of his second term.
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson praised Noem’s performance when asked about the finger-pointing.
“Secretary Noem is doing a great job implementing the president’s agenda and making America safe again,” Jackson said. “President Trump’s entire immigration team is on the same page when it comes to implementing the president’s agenda and the results speak for themselves — the border is secure, and deportations continue to increase.”
Neither the White House spokesperson nor DHS assistant secretary for public affairs, Tricia McLaughlin, responded to requests for comment on the finger-pointing and rising tensions inside the agency.
Spokespeople for CBP and ICE did not respond to requests for comment.
Trump campaigned on a promise to launch the largest mass deportation operation in U.S. history.
But the effort has fallen short of expectations thus far. ICE is arresting fewer than 1,000 people a day on average, based on ICE data recently released as a result of a lawsuit: far below the 3,000 daily goal set by White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller in May. (The administration does not release deportation data.)
The pressure on Noem and Lewandowski has led to tense confrontations within the Homeland Security Department, the two DHS officials said.
Lyons has privately pushed back on the notion that it was his fault there wasn’t more space to detain immigrants and has defended himself to colleagues, the officials said. At one point he threatened to quit, arguing that Lewandowski — not him — was responsible for any decisions related to detention facilities, the officials said.
ICE is now moving forward with plans to own and operate its own detention space out of large warehouses, as previously reported by NBC News.
The two DHS officials said Scott has been left out of conversations about Border Patrol operations in major U.S. cities as well as social gatherings that have included other top DHS leaders. DHS leaders also have told Scott he may soon be out of a job, the officials said, despite record low border numbers during his tenure.
One change in the upper ranks of the department came earlier this week. Noem’s deputy, Troy Edgar, was told that Trump plans to name him as U.S. ambassador to El Salvador, a position that would remove him from the No. 2 spot at DHS, according to a person familiar with the plans.
