News Nation: Trump’s ICE push isn’t catching more criminals: Former official

This interview appeared on News Nation on February 8, 2025. Watch the full clip here.

A former chief of staff for Immigrations and Customs Enforcement thinks the Trump administration’s approach to deportation operations is lacking a “strategic plan.”

“What you should not be having is these sort of fear campaigns in our communities. Nobody wants that,” said Jason P. Houser, who helped lead the agency from 2021 to 2023.

Houser cited the disconnect between the White House — namely “border czar” Tom Homan and President Donald Trump — and ICE agents on the ground as a “real concern.”

“You have this push and pull where ICE is focused on the violent criminals that are in our communities, but [the] administration continuously wants to focus on sort of this qualitative number,” Houser said on “NewsNation Prime” Saturday.

During the first few weeks of Trump’s second term, more than 41,000 were taken into ICE custody. It’s a number that echoes the president’s campaign promises of mass deportation, and that has led to some media reports about alleged ICE arrest quotas.

Quotas, Houser said, would create a system where the most vulnerable and “most removable” are targeted, rather than actual criminals.

The former ICE official said that, when dozens are arrested, “half of those will be released. None of them will ever sort of see removal.”

“Where our ICE resources should be put is on those public safety, national security threats,” he added.

Nearly 30% of those in ICE custody have criminal convictions, data from the Department of Homeland Security indicates, meaning 70% don’t. Just over 33% have a final order of removal.

“Quite frankly, over the last three weeks, violent criminal arrests have went down,” Houser said, adding that only “volume has went up.”