During his campaign, President Trump made immigration a cornerstone of his platform. Now, after 100 days in office, it has become arguably the most controversial promise he has kept.
The administration has used familiar language — referring to "criminals," "gang members," and now "terrorist organizations" — to justify the deportation of a wide range of individuals, including college students on visas and green cards who protested the war in Gaza, parents of children who are U.S. citizens, and people like Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an immigrant from El Salvador the administration admitted to removing from the country by mistake.
While Trump's policies have drawn sharp criticism, courts have begun to weigh in on individual deportation cases, with mixed rulings on the legality of the administration's actions. On Thursday, a federal judge ruled that President Trump's use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelan nationals was "unlawful," blocking further deportations under the 1798 law.
As part of NPR's coverage of the administration's first 100 days, Morning Edition host Michel Martin spoke with Tricia McLaughlin, the Department of Homeland Security's top spokesperson and Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs.
In the interview, McLaughlin defended what she described as the agency's successful deportation efforts and criticized "activist judges" for interfering with enforcement.
She also addressed a controversial immigration raid on the home of a U.S. citizen family in Oklahoma.
"That was actually a large-scale operation where we did interdict eight human traffickers," McLaughlin said. "It was this ultimately successful operation. Unfortunately, the warrant that the court did give was for a house that the targets had moved out of two weeks prior. So that was not an ideal situation, obviously."
McLaughlin spoke to Martin about how the administration plans to ramp up enforcement and carry out what the Trump administration sees as the will of the American people.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Michel Martin: How would you define philosophically the administration's approach in these first 100 days to immigration policy?
McLaughlin: I think we're doing exactly what the President promised that he would do. November 5, 2024 this was the mandate the American people gave him to do, which is to secure the border, secure the homeland.
Martin: The White House set some high targets for arrests and deportations at the beginning of this term, but it seems like it's been harder to meet those because so few people are crossing into the U.S. from the southern border. And in fact, that decrease in crossings had happened before the President took office. So how do you think you're doing on those metrics?
McLaughlin: I think that we've seen a lot of success at the border itself. We were just down in El Paso with Secretary Noem, and it was quiet. We really just saw our border patrol agents. We were not seeing migrants crossing. But as far as in the interior of our country, our ICE agents, they've really been hamstrung for the last four years, and in so many instances, vilified for simply doing their jobs and trying to get criminal illegal aliens off of our streets. And so what we're doing is a change in the culture. This first 100 days, and we are seeing success, but we're going to see those numbers increase in the next 100 days.
Martin: The President is using tools that previous Presidents have not used in peacetime, declaring a national emergency at the southern border, invoking the Alien Enemies Act. Does the DHS believe that this Civil War-era Act allows them to skip normal immigration court proceedings and due process?
McLaughlin: Absolutely not. We don't believe that this allows us to skip due process, nor are we skipping due process. We are abiding every day by due process that is guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution. The key word is due. The Supreme Court has recognized that the amount of process that is due varies based on the situation. So whether that person is an illegal alien, a member of trend de Aragua, a member of another terrorist organization, that process is going to look different.
Martin: But the issue is, and I think this is something that the President has talked about a lot, is that there have been a number of judges complaining about the administration's tactics, demanding more information, saying that the administration is being evasive in court proceedings. Is there an attempt to force a confrontation with the courts to define this authority and to define it in a more expansive fashion that has been interpreted in the past?
McLaughlin: We knew we were facing an uphill battle with these courts. We knew that there would be activist judges as we entered this administration, and that is why the President is giving the American people and the government who is executing on the mandate the American people every tool at our disposal to get out the people who have illegally entered this country.
Martin: I don't know who you're calling activist judges because a number of the judges who've objected to the administration's tactics in court have been appointed by Republicans and in some cases by President Trump.
McLaughlin: Sure I can point exactly who I'm talking about, if you'd like. Wisconsin Judge ….
Martin: I'm not trying to litigate each case here. That's not where we're here to do. What I'm asking you here is, philosophically, does the administration have a strategy of trying to force confrontations with these judges in order to expand the limits of its executive authority?
McLaughlin: Again, we are executing on the will of the American people, and we will use the tools at our disposal, including the Alien Enemies Act, which the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that we could use, and we will continue to use.
Martin: So the department has made some mistakes. There's a U.S. citizen named Juan Carlos Lopez Gomez who was arrested by ICE in Florida. There was a U.S. citizen named Jose Hermosillo who was held in New Mexico for some days. There was an incident in Oklahoma where a family that had recently moved there from Maryland, who say they are U.S. citizens who had just moved into this house. Their home was raided. The agents ransacked the house in their telling. It took their private property as evidence, they say. What is the administration doing to make sure that these mistakes don't continue to happen?
McLaughlin: I want to speak directly to that Oklahoma case. That was actually a large scale operation where we did interdict eight human traffickers. It was an ultimately successful operation. Unfortunately, the warrant that the court did give was for a house that the targets had moved out of two weeks prior. So that was not an ideal situation obviously. We know that our ICE agents across the country are following proper protocol and proper procedures, and we are working every day to make ourselves excellent for the American people.
Martin: What I'm asking you is, when persons have been wrongly identified, as seems to have been the case here, and have been treated in a manner that is frightening to them, what redress do they have? Is the administration prepared to apologize to them? Are they offering them some compensation for this?
McLaughlin: Of course, we do internal investigations, and we make sure that these kinds of things don't happen again. We are striving for our excellence. We are striving to best serve the American people.
Martin: So now that the administration has put a lot of effort into its deportation efforts, what are the efforts going forward? Is there going to be an effort to achieve some sort of a comprehensive immigration reform system? What can we look forward to in the next 100 days?
McLaughlin: Absolutely. I think that we're going to see an increase in interior operations. Many who are in Florida probably heard about Operation Tidal Wave, where we pulled almost 1,000 criminal aliens, including MS-13 members, rapists, murderers, convicted off of our streets. We're going to see more of our use of 287(g) authorities, which is deputizing state and local law enforcement to carry out immigration enforcement action. But I think we're also going to be looking more broadly at our legal immigration system and making sure we have increased vetting. We saw that there was a lot of exploitation, particularly CBP One and other parole programs under the past administration, and that's something we're going to really look to fix so that we know who is in this country.
Note: Section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act allows DHS to partner with state and local law enforcement agencies to carry out immigration enforcement under ICE's oversight.
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