Every US department is an immigration agency

Washington, Feb. 22: Drug Enforcement Administration agents touting immigration arrests, IRS agents poring over documents, the military escorting deportation flights. As the Trump administration works on the president's pledge to crack down on illegal immigration and carry out mass deportations, the flurry of activity has stretched across the federal government — well beyond the Department of Homeland Security, the traditional home to most immigration and border security functions.

President Donald Trump's sweeping promises have translated into a whole-of-government approach for immigration enforcement. In other words, nearly every major Cabinet agency is an immigration agency in Trump's government.

The departments of State, Defense and Justice have made immigration a clear priority in their work and public messaging. Parts of the departments of Treasury and Health and Human Services have been involved. And the reach and focus on immigration are only expected to grow, with the Republican president late Wednesday signing an executive order aimed at ending federal benefits for people in the U.S. illegally.

"The breadth of what is happening in these first couple of weeks is much wider than we saw during the first Trump administration," said Colleen Putzel-Kavanaugh, associate policy analyst with the Migration Policy Institute.

Here's a look at how immigration enforcement is playing out across the federal government.

Immigration as a State Department priority

Trump has promised "mass deportations," which means not only arresting as many people in the U.S. illegally as possible but also figuring out how to remove them from the country.

That's where the State Department comes in.

Marco Rubio's first international trip as secretary of state was to Central America, and he came away with deals for Guatemala, Panama and El Salvador to accept deportees from other nations. That helps officials address a key barrier: Many countries don't take back their citizens when deported.

Other issues were part of Rubio's trip — Chinese influence on the Panama Canal, for example — but migration was at the top of his agenda.

Tom Warrick, a former top DHS counterterrorism official who's now at the Atlantic Council, a nonpartisan think tank, said that wasn't always the case.

"For DHS, for ICE in particular, it's, 'What do you need foreign countries to do? OK. State Department, it's now your requirement to go out and make that your top priority,'" he said.

Trump's pick for Rubio's deputy, Christopher Landau, was ambassador to Mexico from 2019 to 2021 and played a key role in implementing the Remain in Mexico policy, and, like Rubio, speaks fluent Spanish.

That's another sign of immigration's importance, said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates for less immigration.

"Just the fact that the two of them are the No. 1 and 2 people in the State Department suggests the administration's refocus on our own backyard," Krikorian said. "And immigration control is a big part of that."

And from the State Department's Diplomatic Security Service, 600 agents were deputized Tuesday by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to assist in "arresting and deporting" people in the country illegally.(AP)