ICE Has Received No Order to Ease Enforcement After Midterm Losses, Officials Say, as Miller Becomes Chief of Staff

President Trump announced Friday, Nov. 6, that Stephen Miller will replace Susie Wiles as White House chief of staff. Miller, 41, starts Monday, Nov. 9.

Wiles, 69, the first woman to hold the job, handed in her resignation Thursday night. "I wanted to make a change," Trump told reporters before boarding Marine One. "Stephen's been with me from the beginning. He gets it." Trump said Wiles will move to his political operation.

The timing is the story. Republicans took heavy losses on Election Day, including in historically red states like Texas. In January, Democrats take control of the House and the Senate.

No pullback ordered

Multiple U.S. officials told CBS News that DHS and ICE have received no instructions to reduce enforcement since the election. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the press.

In recent weeks, ICE officials were told to aim for about 19,000 arrests a week, roughly 2,700 a day, according to agency sources. The prior target was 2,000 a day. Those sources say the new target was set before the midterms.

Asked whether the election would bring a pullback, one official told CBS: "I would count on the opposite."

The numbers have a history. In May 2025, Miller set a goal of 3,000 arrests a day, Axios reported. Reuters reported he told ICE leadership to widen the net to people without criminal records rather than focus on the "worst of the worst."

What voters said

In a Fox News midterm poll, 58% of voters said Trump's immigration enforcement had "gone too far." The same poll found 60% disapproved of ICE's job performance. Exit polls showed immigration ranked among voters' top issues alongside the economy, and Latino voters in Texas swung heavily toward Democrats.

The administration reads the results differently. Officials told CBS they believe the losses were driven mainly by the economy, affordability and the war with Iran, not immigration.

White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis put it this way: "This administration will not slow down its efforts to arrest and deport criminal illegal aliens who terrorize our communities. There has never been a President stronger on immigration enforcement than President Trump." She pointed to illegal border crossings, which she said have fallen to historically low levels after record highs under Joe Biden.

The poll and the administration's explanation are not mutually exclusive. A 58% "gone too far" number says something about the tactics. It does not isolate how many votes moved because of them.

Friction inside the administration

Miller has not always had the last word. Tom Homan, the border czar, has favored prioritizing people with criminal histories and final deportation orders, according to a Wall Street Journal report in February. CNN has reported that Markwayne Mullin, who succeeded Kristi Noem at DHS, has clashed with Miller over messaging and policy while keeping what that report called a "positive" working relationship.

After federal immigration agents shot and killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis in January, the White House rolled back the policy and Miller kept a lower profile, according to AFP. The Wall Street Journal reported this week that Melania Trump told the president some of her friends had been swept up in the crackdown, and that Trump told aides Miller had gone "too far." Those accounts rest on the Journal's reporting, and the White House has not confirmed them in the statements released so far.

Trump's own words Friday leaned the other way. He called Miller "very good politically" and a "great manager." Miller posted on X: "The mission now is more clear than ever: Fight with all of our soul to support our President and defend this magnificent Republic."

Democrats respond

Democratic leaders did not wait. House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries called Miller "a dangerous xenophobe and reckless extremist who has American blood on his hands" and demanded he be fired. Chuck Schumer, expected to lead the Senate majority, said Trump "learned nothing from his historic defeat" and promised that "our Democratic majorities will fight him every step of the way."

Presidential historian Chris Whipple, author of a book on chiefs of staff, told CNN the pick is "almost a declaration" of intent. Allies cheered. Former Rep. Matt Gaetz posted, "IT'S MILLER TIME."

What comes next

Border security is a core conservative position, and crossings are down sharply. But the administration is now betting that a higher arrest quota survives a midterm in which a majority of voters in the Fox poll said enforcement had overreached. It is doing so under a chief of staff who is the most direct target of the incoming Democratic majorities.

Those majorities take their seats in January with authority to investigate ICE operations and the policies behind them. Miller's first day on the job is tomorrow. Whether the 2,700-a-day target holds through that oversight is the open question.