The Trump administration has quietly begun a purge of top-level Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in offices in five major U.S. cities.

Sources within the White House confirmed that Trump removed important ICE officials as ICE conducts controversial but necessary immigration raids in Democrat cities. 

These officials are being replaced by senior officials in ICE who are trusted by the Trump administration to conduct interior immigration enforcement within the U.S.

So far, ICE officials in Denver, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Phoenix, and San Diego have been relieved of their jobs and moved to other posts within the federal agency as of last Friday.

The biggest objective seems to be maximising deportation numbers while further publicizing ICE's operations to show voters that Trump is following through on promises to fix America's broken immigration system.

Power struggle

The Trump administration seems to be focused on ensuring that the most competent officials are in charge to maximise arrests and ratchet up deportation numbers, as despite ICE's success, there are simply too many illegal immigrants who have yet to be deported.

One source, speaking anonymously, told The Washington Examiner that, "The administration wanted all these guys fired and Todd [Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons] stepped in and said, ‘Let’s move them all to headquarters.'"

However, it was a comment about DHS Secretary Kristi Noem that suggested these firings may have been tied to a developing power struggle behind the scenes.

A second official stated that, "I personally think this is being pushed by Noem and [DHS senior adviser Corey Lewandowski] because they don’t like [White House border czar Tom Homan]. I think Tom would have said, ‘No way.'"

So it is highly possible there is a power struggle that has been raging behind the scenes between Noem and Homan, who has been in charge of Trump's immigration reforms and the deportation agenda.

Further adding to speculation of an internal struggle is a report that during a meeting in May, White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, Noem, and ICE leadership, Trump administration officials were tearing into ICE officials for failing to meet targeted deportation rates.

More changes coming

One official who spoke to the Examiner ominously stated that, "It’s a lot more," when questioned about what the Trump administration has in store for ICE.

The White House wants ICE to arrest 3,000 illegal immigrants per day, which would work out to more than 1 million arrests in one year. The goal is to deport millions of illegal immigrants but at current rates, ICE is deporting hundreds of thousands, not millions.

This goal has so far been seen as impossible due to ICE's focus on dangerous criminal illegal aliens, but it appears that the Trump administration wants to start targeting non-violent illegal aliens to boost deportation numbers.

Only time will tell what comes of the suspected power struggle in the Trump administration, but one thing is clear: deportations must rise, and those who can't rise to the occasion will be replaced.