From verbal order to denial, correction: How ICE's confusing weekend over arrests of noncriminal immigrants unfolded

It took less than 48 hours for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to go from suspending arrests of immigrants with no criminal record to publicly denying that it had suspended them, and finally to acknowledging that such a directive did exist, though it attributed it to an internal communication error.

It all began on Friday night, when journalist Jennie Taer of The Daily Wire revealed that ICE officers across the country had received a verbal order to suspend arrests of undocumented immigrants with no criminal convictions or charges. According to sources consulted by Taer, the measure also applied to individuals with final deportation orders but no criminal record, and put an end — at least temporarily — to so-called "collateral arrests," a practice of also detaining other undocumented immigrants present at the location where a specific target was being sought.

After the report caused a stir, drawing both criticism and praise for the Trump administration, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a denial that same night in a post on X.

"This is false. No one is off the table. We will continue to arrest any and all illegal aliens that come into our path. Anyone in our country illegally will be arrested and deported," the agency wrote, adding that ICE had launched "a nationwide public safety surge in sanctuary cities," targeting "criminal illegal aliens — many released from jails by sanctuary politicians — including murderers, rapists, child predators and gang members."

The denial did not put an end to the matter. This Sunday, Taer posted again on The Daily Wire that the Trump administration was "scrambling to correct the record," after her original report sparked what she described as a political storm. According to her new report, within hours, ICE had already given its officers the green light to resume arrests of undocumented immigrants without convictions or charges. An official from the White House, according to sources cited by The Daily Wire, also confirmed that some ICE officers did, in fact, receive that verbal directive to halt arrests.

Apart from that report, no official spokesperson for DHS or the White House has publicly confirmed, as of yet, that account of the source of the confusion.

Scott Mechkowski, former deputy director of the ICE office in New York, told The Daily Wire that it is most likely that a DHS official miscommunicated an internal directive. "This was not a policy change, and anyone reporting it that way is getting it wrong," he said. "Somebody in communications pushed out guidance without understanding how ERO [Enforcement and Removal Operations] actually operates, and it got garbled on the way to the field."

As he explained, the original intent was for officers to prioritize cases involving criminal records, not to stop arresting the rest. "The guidance was meant to tell those officers to work their criminal cases first. Prioritize, not quit. There's a big difference, and whoever wrote it didn't grasp that. It was corrected within a day," he added.

John Sandweg, who headed ICE on an interim basis during the Obama administration, agreed that it was likely a communication issue.

"A lot of times when the guidance is kicked out to the field, there's a desire within ICE to simplify it and make it as unambiguous as possible … maybe the message was, 'Hey, we need to make sure we're really focusing as well on the criminal population' and somehow by the time it ends up down in the field, that comes out to don't touch any noncriminals," he told The Wire.

Alex Howard, a former DHS spokesperson under Biden, noted an uncomfortable resemblance to a memo that the same agency had issued under then-Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, which was also aimed at prioritizing the most serious cases.

"The principle of the [Biden DHS Secretary Alejandro] Mayorkas memo was simple: ICE has broader legal authority than it has resources, so you prioritize the highest-risk cases," Howard explained. "The policies aren't identical, but it's striking that this administration appears to have briefly moved toward that same concept before quickly reaffirming broader enforcement after the guidance became public and drew Republican pushback."

According to Howard, DHS is now in damage-control mode because "there's an election in 36 days," and the resulting confusion is affecting two key voter groups: the Republican base — which also includes MAGA voters who support the policy of mass deportations — and the Hispanic electorate — which is key to Trump's return to the White House and which is being directly affected by the arrests of immigrants seeking asylum or with no criminal record.

This isn't the first time a decision like this has ended up being reversed almost immediately. In July, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin briefly halted ICE vehicle checkpoints following two fatal shootings in Maine and Texas. As soon as he found out, President Trump ordered them to be reinstated.