A former head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has expressed concerns about the agency’s current “unprecedented” approach to enforcement, which he views as overly aggressive.
John Sandweg, who led the agency from 2013 to 2014 and previously served as legal counsel for four years, shared his insights.
During his tenure, Sandweg emphasized that agents did not use face masks or conduct mass arrests without thorough investigations, striving instead to uphold integrity and humane treatment, he explained in an interview with Politico.
He expressed that the current strategies are unlike anything he has encountered before.
“To my knowledge, we’ve never witnessed an immigration enforcement effort of this scale nationwide,” he stated. “Under the Obama Administration, we conducted numerous operations across the country, but they were very targeted.”
Between 2009 and 2016, the Obama Administration deported approximately three million immigrants.
So far, the Trump Administration has deported around two million people since the Republican came back into power in 2025. During his first term, Trump deported around 1.5 million.
However, Sandweg said, those deported under Obama were ‘carefully selected.’
John Sandweg was the chief of the now-controversial agency from 2013 to 2014
Federal agents clash with anti-ICE protesters at the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Portland on October 12
‘There was a lot of research and investigation done before you went out to make the actual arrest,’ he told the outlet.
‘These [the current raids] are much more akin to area sweeps, where they’re going out and just stopping people in the streets, or working in conjunction with other law enforcement as they execute traffic stops, or hitting a large number of apartments in a building where you suspect people are undocumented.
‘We’ve never seen anything like this. All of this is unprecedented.’
He hypothesized that some of the violence seen by current ICE agents is due to them being under ‘tremendous pressure’ to up the number of arrests as the current administration has promised to be unforgiving about illegal immigration.
Another part is the constant anti-ICE protests seen across the country, with Portland, Oregon, currently taking the spotlight. Sandweg said that both those hired to protect the facility and agents are using ‘aggressive tactics’ to deal with it.
Also, where ICE agents and Homeland Security (DHS) would spend months investigating migrants before swooping in during his time at the agency, he said the Trump Administration is taking a different tactic.
‘This administration has repurposed the way they’ve operationalized ICE – to go out and get as many people as possible, and that’s why we’re seeing these raids on the car washes and on the Home Depot parking lots.
‘They know they can make a large number of arrests there, and they don’t seem to care whether or not those people pose a threat to public safety. They just say: “If you’re undocumented, you’re a fair target.”‘
Under his leadership, his agents didn’t wear face masks or round up immigrants in large droves without months of investigations behind it, Sandweg said
‘I hate that the agents are wearing the masks. I think it is hurting the reputation of the agency, and feeding a lot of these narratives about the agency,’ he said
He also worried that the force is expanding too quickly – as Trump has promised to double the workers – and they aren’t being trained properly.
‘The first concern would be, let’s hope ICE doesn’t lower their standards,’ he told Politico. ‘Normally, to hire this many people, it would take the agency three, four years.
‘This administration clearly doesn’t want to wait. They want to get people out there as quickly as possible.’
He worries DHS isn’t taking the proper time to background check new agents or make sure they are trained correctly. Without these two things, it’s ‘only a recipe for problems down the line.’
This also spilled into why he believed officers are now wearing masks, something not seen in prior administrations, including Trump’s first term.
‘It was never an issue. I spent five years at DHS working on ICE issues. It just wasn’t an issue. None of the officers felt the need to wear masks. I think it’s an unfortunate byproduct of the administration’s policies,’ he told the outlet.
‘I hate that the agents are wearing the masks. I think it is hurting the reputation of the agency, and feeding a lot of these narratives about the agency.’
Sandweg said the only way to fix the current issues with ICE is to revert back to traditional policies seen in prior administrations and immigration reform
However, he said he is sympathetic toward the agents themselves, as they may feel the need to conceal their identity to protect themselves and their families.
Sandweg said the only way to fix the current issues with ICE is to revert back to traditional policies seen in prior administrations, such as focusing on getting the worst illegal immigrants out first, and to pass immigration reform.
Without these changes, the former chief said: ‘Unfortunately, I just don’t see a scenario where these continued, very aggressive, mass deportation efforts don’t remain incredibly contentious.’
