By Raphael Satter
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem appointed new leadership at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Sunday as the agency struggles to meet President Donald Trump’s stated goal of massive deportation operations aimed at immigrants in the U.S. illegally.
Trump’s administration deported 37,660 people during his first month in office, U.S. Department of Homeland Security data first reported by Reuters last month show, far less than the monthly average of 57,000 removals and returns in the last full year of Joe Biden’s administration.
Trump made the promise of deporting millions of people from the United States a centerpiece of his campaign. The acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Caleb Vitello, was reassigned last month for failing to meet expectations, Reuters previously reported.
Noem said she was promoting Todd Lyons, ICE’s acting executive associate director, to be the agency’s acting director, and Madison Sheahan, secretary of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, to serve as deputy director.
“I am appointing new ICE leadership to deliver results that President Trump and the American people rightfully demand,” Noem said in a statement, adding that Lyons and Sheahan would “lead the men and women of ICE to achieve the American people’s mandate to target, arrest and deport illegal aliens.”
(Reporting by Raphael Satter; Editing by Scott Malone and Bill Berkrot)
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