WSJ: Trump Grants Deportation Authority to DoJ Agencies

It’s Day Three of the Trump administration, and the Wall Street Journal is … impatient.

Donald Trump has spent the first 70 hours of his presidency focusing mainly on issuing directives to executive-branch agencies to prioritize their work according to his agenda. Trump has shut down DEI offices throughout the federal agencies, ended affirmative action, put a stop to intervention in political speech, and focused the Department of Justice on combatting obstruction of immigration-law enforcement by state and local officials. 

On that note, the WSJ reports ‘exclusively’ that Trump has expanded deportation authority to a wide range of federal law-enforcement agencies … while the WSJ crabs that Trump hasn’t launched any “large-scale” operations yet (emphasis mine):

The Trump administration is attempting to amass a larger force of law-enforcement officials to help carry out deportations by granting agents across the federal government the same powers as an immigration officer, according to an internal memo seen by The Wall Street Journal. 

The memo, sent by acting Homeland Security Secretary Benjamine Huffman, says DHS is granting immigration-enforcement authority to several agencies at the Justice Department, including the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the U.S. Marshals Service. 

The directive is the latest in a flurry of moves the Trump administration has taken this week to marshal the vast resources of the federal government to carry out the president’s signature campaign promise on immigration. Despite those steps, no large-scale immigration operations have yet materialized.

Ahem. In the first place, Trump has conducted a three-day blitz on the status quo of Washington DC across nearly all policy fronts. Their own report exclusively reveals a large-scale expansion of resources to deal with illegal immigrants! What more does the WSJ expect after only three days — mass arrests?

Oh yeah … we have those too. 

SNEAK PEEK: We embedded exclusively w/ ICE Boston today as they targeted egregious criminal aliens. We witnessed 8 arrests, including multiple MS-13, Interpol Red Notices, murder & rape suspects, & a volatile Haitian gang member w/ 18 convictions in recent years who told our… pic.twitter.com/LgerOp8dU8

— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) January 22, 2025

… a volatile Haitian gang member w/ 18 convictions in recent years who told our cameras he “ain’t going back to Haiti” and “f**k Trump, Biden forever!”. 

We also witnessed a “collateral” arrest, where ICE arrested an illegal alien who wasn’t their initial target – but was with a MS-13 gang member who had been released by a sanctuary jurisdiction yesterday with an ICE detainer not honored. These collateral arrests are something that border czar Tom Homan has warned would happen in sanctuary jurisdictions. At one point, a woman yelled out “thank you” to ICE as a violent illegal alien was being arrested in her neighborhood. 

In fact, border czar Tom Homan announced yesterday morning that ICE had already rounded up over 300 known violent illegals after one full day on the job:

Boom! Tom Homan announces that ICE has already arrested 308 violent criminal illegals. Homan is targeting the “worst first” but if you’re in the country illegally, you are eligible for deportation. Leave now. pic.twitter.com/jVlzVlIa0H

— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) January 22, 2025

They’re starting with those who are already known to law enforcement. Wait until we see what that number looks like before they have to conduct investigations to find the rest. Bet on that being six figures, easy, which will then prompt the question as to why these violent illegals were not already in custody, let alone why they were still in the US.

Maybe 308 illegal and violent felons in a single day doesn’t qualify for a “large scale” operation. It qualifies as a very good start, however, especially when it comes after 36 hours in office or so. 

So what does Trump’s deputization of DoJ agencies accomplish? Technically, as the WSJ also points out, most of these agencies already had this authority under limited circumstances, primarily when investigating other crimes committed by illegal aliens. This broadens the context in which they can use their authority, which means they may not have to spend time and resources on referrals to the Department of Homeland Security. That would make the process of deportation more efficient. More importantly, though, it sets the tone for the executive branch and emphasizes the importance of enforcing immigration law in all phases of executive-branch authority. It also sets a strong example of how Trump expects state and local law enforcement agencies to cooperate in this process.

Maybe that doesn’t qualify as a large-scale op either, but again, it’s a really good start.