() President Donald Trump’s mission of achieving the largest mass deportation in history has been snagged by disappointing migrant apprehension numbers, leading to not only a shift in where the operation will focus, but also, in one case, which federal immigration agency is running point, has learned.

Multiple sources within Customs and Border Protection tell that the U.S. Border Patrol has been designated as the lead agency for the Department of Homeland Security’s operations in Los Angeles. Sources said that Border Patrol El Centro Sector Chief Gregory Bovino is now running point on the ground amid migrant arrest numbers that have proven disappointing to the Trump administration.

Bovino will report to the Department of Homeland Security, the federal agency that both the Border Patrol and ICE fall under. However, the shift in Los Angeles is significant as Border Patrol has never had removal authority as ICE has.

Trump senior adviser Stephen Miller announced last month that he was calling for 3,000 arrests from ICE daily. However, statistics show the agency was averaging about 1,600 apprehensions per day, which in part led to the change in focus in Los Angeles.

ICE has been the lead agency in deportation efforts. Trump has ordered ICE to focus on “crime-ridden and deadly Inner Cities, and those places where Sanctuary Cities play such a big role.”

This latest development comes after ICE raided several areas in Los Angeles less than two weeks ago, which led to “No Kings” protests popping up across the country.

On Sunday, Border Patrol agents conducted an immigration enforcement operation in the Santa Fe Springs Swap Meet, where federal agents had obtained information that people were working and selling products illegally. Border Patrol, working along with ICE, arrested two people.

ICE officials said Monday that the two people entered the United States illegally in 2022 near Yuma, Arizona, and had been previously ordered to be removed from the country in 2023. Both were released from custody before being apprehended Sunday. Sunday’s operation did not involve U.S. Marines, who were deployed to Los Angeles at Trump’s direction to assist with operations surrounding anti-ICE protests and other demonstrations.

“DHS agencies will not be deterred from the completion of our mission,” the agency said in a statement provided to .

The shift to cities like Los Angeles, Chicago and New York comes as Trump on Monday ordered a pause on operations targeting the agricultural and hospitality industries.

According to officials with the United Farm Workers Union, ICE raids were conducted at farms in several regions of California last week. The enforcement operations also centered on a Nebraska meatpacking plant, which was the largest workplace immigration raid in state history.

Trump expressed concerns about the impact that such enforcement efforts could have on the farming and hospitality industries, both of which are largely comprised of immigrant workers.

Mayors in Trump-targeted cities respond

That shifted the Trump administration’s attention to large Democratic-led cities, which has drawn criticism from leaders, including Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson also decried Trump’s efforts to send ICE agents to the city. Johnson accused Trump of being determined to insert chaos in Chicago, where an estimated 75,000 people participated in Saturday’s “No Kings” protest.

“We have an absolutely criminalized approach towards governance, and this president clearly continues to show how low he will stoop in order to protect the interests of a handful of people,” Johnson said.

On Monday, New York City Mayor Eric Adams said that police officers there would not cooperate with ICE when asked about the president’s directive to expand enforcement operations. An Adams spokeswoman told on Monday that the New York City Police Department’s commitment to follow city laws and to keep immigration enforcement at the federal level comes as migrants remain afraid due to increased ICE presence.

“Mayors are elected to keep everyone in their city safe, and Mayor Adams has made it clear that our entire city is safe when people living here are afraid to use local resources – like sending their kids to school, dialing 911, going to the hospital or going to court hearings – and instead, live in the shadows,” the spokeswoman said.

Trump’s Blue city focus spikes fear among migrants

Jennifer Behm, a partner with Berardi Immigration Law in Buffalo, agreed, saying that migrants who were already living in fear over the threat of ICE’s presence now are likely to feel more anxiety because of where the messaging is coming from.

She said that migrants who were already canceling medical appointments, skipping work, or avoiding sending their children to school over concerns that they may be swept up by federal agents feel even less empowered to live their lives when directives are coming from the president himself rather than members of his administration including White House Border Czar Tom Homan and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem.

“We’ve seen this playbook before, but now, it’s really been broadcast from the top, and it turns what is generally a policy issue, now, with Trump’s commentary on it, it feels almost like a political stunt,” Behm told . “And so the community reaction is high levels of fear, and we’re not really solving immigration as a problem.”

Behm said that part of the issue are the expectations of more arrests being made by ICE, which has shifted the administration’s focus off of the “worst of the worst” and onto other migrants who happen to find themselves living in cities that are now under a new spotlight.

(These cities) aren’t being targeted because there are criminals in the cities; they’re being targeted for defiance of the Trump administration,” Behm said. “But when you’ve got these large-scale (arrest) quotas and these massive raids and you have this rhetoric coming from the top, that’s where everything seems to feel really politicized rather than, ‘OK, let’s keep the good of America and all of our economies in hand.'”