ICE Enforcement Operations

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said President Trump "will not waver" in his deportation crackdown and defended ICE and Border Patrol as "true patriots" amid Democratic backlash after deadly incidents in Minneapolis, reaffirming support for DHS Secretary Kristi Noem. The administration has touted a nationwide surge of targeted ICE operations — calling recent arrests "ICE's Christmas gift to Americans," naming hundreds of convicted noncitizens arrested in operations from Minnesota to Ohio and New Orleans, claiming more than 2.5 million people have left the U.S. since January 2025, and rejecting Democratic assertions of a spike in deaths in custody, even as local leaders have urged ICE to cease operations.