U.S. Border Patrol Chief Michael Banks told Newsmax on Wednesday that his agency can help fulfill an ambitious goal of arresting at least 3,000 illegal immigrants a day.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller reportedly stated last week that the daily standard of 1,000 arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement during the early days of the Trump administration was falling short of the target of 3,000 a day.
“It’s absolutely doable, without a doubt,” Banks told “Rob Schmitt Tonight.”
ICE announced last month that it arrested “66,463 illegal aliens” during the first 100 days of President Donald Trump’s second term and “removed 65,682 aliens.” Although border crossings have reached record lows, the number of deportations is roughly at Biden administration levels — largely due to injunctions judges placed on the administration, he said.
Still, it means arrests will have to come through the millions who crossed illegally and evaded capture during the Biden administration, said Banks.
It’s “crucial” that Congress pass the reconciliation budget bill, dubbed Trump’s “one big, beautiful bill,” he said, because it contains needed funding for illegal immigration enforcement.
“The previous administration raped, robbed, and pillaged every penny that wasn’t nailed down to allow illegal immigration to happen,” Banks said. “And so we’ve got to rebuild back up our forces, our infrastructure, and our resources inside of the U.S. Border Patrol.
“But right now, with what we have we’ve been able to drastically decrease the number of illegal immigrants crossing into the United States daily. We’re currently seeing a 93% decrease.
“And so,what that is allowing us to do is to provide Border Patrol agents and CBP [Customs and Border Protection] officers to assist ICE in reaching that goal of 3,000 arrests a day.”
The goal would total about 1.1 million for a year, a figure Banks said he would be “excited” to reach.
“I can tell you that U.S. Border Patrol is going to be lockstep with ICE and DHS [the Department of Homeland Security] as we go out and arrest those that are in this country illegally and get them deported,” Banks said.
He added the administration will eventually prevail against the injunctions that have limited their deportation efforts: “I have no doubt we’re going to be able to get those in this country illegally deported. We have a large number of illegal immigrants in this country that have already received their due process and have already been ordered deported by a judge and just have refused to leave.
“And so if we’re targeting those that are deportable first and foremost, then I think we can achieve this goal pretty rapidly.
“Look, the United States Border Patrol is No. 1. priority is to secure the border and prevent those from coming in. And I can tell you that we’ve made a dramatic shift from the previous administration, and we have done a phenomenal job. I can’t say enough about what the Border Patrol has been able to do in such a short period of time, and we’re just getting started.”