December 6, 2024 1:48 pm
President-elect Donald Trump‘s selection of Caleb Vitello as the acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is part of the incoming administration’s effort to push out the Biden holdover on Day One and begin carrying out the mass deportation, sources tell the Washington Examiner.
Trump announced Vitello, a senior ICE official, as the leader of the 20,000-person federal agency inside the Department of Homeland Security late Thursday evening, ending a monthlong debate over who would win the coveted job.
“A member of the Senior Executive Service, with over 23 years of service to ICE, Caleb currently serves as Assistant Director of the Office of Firearms and Tactical Programs, where he oversees Agency-wide training, equipment, and policy to ensure Officer and Public Safety,” Trump said in a statement.
“Caleb’s exceptional leadership, extensive experience, and commitment to ICE’s mission make him an excellent choice to implement my efforts to enhance the safety and security of American communities who have been victimized by illegal alien crime,” Trump added.
Acting ICE Director Patrick “PJ” Lechleitner has been at the helm since June 2023 but is not seen in the Trumpworld as right to continue in the job.
Officials involved in the transition on homeland security matters did not specify if Trump planned to nominate Vitello in the future or just use him as an immediate placeholder.
Who is Caleb Vitello?
One source close to the transition team said Vitello was a “good temporary pick that removes the Biden administration appointee with a seasoned … enforcement-minded leader” who had experience in ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations.
Vitello has overseen the Fugitive Operations Academy, served as deputy assistant director, and led the National Fugitive Operations Program. That last job makes him a fitting pick for the mass deportations and arrests Trump is planning.
At the National Fugitive Operations Program, Vitello provided policy guidance, strategic planning, and operational oversight of ICE efforts to locate, arrest, and remove at-large criminals and illegal immigrants from the United States.
Later, as the chief of staff for ICE ERO, Vitello managed daily operations for the $4.7 billion budget organization and oversaw 8,000 employees.
An adviser on homeland security matters to the Trump transition team said Vitello was a “great choice” and had significant experience working with the White House in 2018.
Vitello worked on the White House National Security Council, in which he led initiatives on national security and child safety threats.
“He had a close working relationship with Stephen Miller. Miller liked him a lot and relied heavily on him. Caleb was regularly the voice of reason in those West Wing meetings,” the second source wrote in a text message on Friday.
Without a permanent leader
ICE has been without a confirmed leader since Sarah Saldaña under former President Barack Obama in late 2016. Since then, it has been led by officials in temporary, nevertheless long-term, capacities. That is expected to continue, at least in the short term.
When Trump took office in 2017, he asked then-acting ICE Director Tom Homan to stay on and lead ICE until a permanent nominee could be selected. That never happened.
In April 2021, President Joe Biden nominated left-leaning Sheriff Ed Gonzalez of Houston’s Harris County to head ICE.
However, Gonzalez bowed out in mid-2022 after failing to get confirmed amid a personal scandal. The Senate stalled on his confirmation in March 2022 after claims surfaced that he was the suspect in a domestic violence altercation with his wife, Melissa.
Gonzalez worked for the Houston Police Department for nearly two decades before becoming sheriff, when he spoke out against the work of ICE. The federal agency is responsible for detaining and deporting immigrants residing in the U.S. without permission, as well as carrying out major investigations that relate to homeland security.
Since Gonzalez’s departure, ICE has been led by career officials at the agency.
Trump’s plans for ICE
Trump has vowed to carry out the nation’s largest deportation operation. To oversee the effort, Trump tapped Homan as his administration’s “border czar,” though Vitello will be the one in the area overseeing and carrying out the operation, at least initially.
Homan’s czar position is not a standard government post, but Homan’s assignment as czar will allow him to avoid a possibly ugly and unsuccessful confirmation battle in the Senate, given his outspoken nature and strong alignment with Trump on immigration matters.
Trump and Vice President-elect J.D. Vance have touted plans to start out arresting and deporting the 500,000 to 1 million illegal immigrants with criminal records.
In addition to criminals, the Trump-Vance administration wants to remove the people who have already been ordered by a federal immigration judge to be removed.
In total, roughly 1.3 million people have been ordered deported and are still in the U.S., according to the Wall Street Journal.
One in 5 voters in battleground states identified immigration and border security as their top concerns in the days after the Nov. 5 election, according to exit polling conducted by a conservative nonprofit organization.
A Building America’s Future memo, obtained exclusively by the Washington Examiner, revealed how significant of a concern the illegal immigration crisis and crime at the southern border are to average Americans in key states, a matter Trump focused his campaign on.
