Fake Courtrooms, Sham Hearings: Immigrants Targeted by Scams Amid Trump Administration's Deportation Push.
- In February 2025, a heated dispute over President Donald Trump's "master plan" for mass deportations forced aides to "clear the room" during a meeting between top Homeland Security officials seeking to establish a National Incident Command Center.
- Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott advocated for warrantless home entries to reach 1 million annual deportations, but acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Caleb Vitello opposed the strategy, fearing U.S. citizens could be wrongfully swept up in enforcement surges.
- Following Vitello's reassignment, acting ICE director Todd Lyons signed a document in May authorizing agents to detain individuals "in their residences" based solely on administrative warrants from ICE field offices rather than judges.
- Amid mounting criticism following fatal shootings in Minneapolis, President Trump fired Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in March 2026, the first Cabinet official ousted in his second term, as the administration remained well short of its 1 million annual deportation goal.
- The new book "Undue Process: The Inside Story of Trump's Mass Deportation Program" reveals how officials prioritized "spectacle and punishment" over civil liberties, though current DHS leadership under Sen. Markwayne Mullin has paused warrantless home entries.
19 Articles
19 Articles
Fake courtrooms, sham hearings: Immigrants targeted by scams amid Trump administration's deportation push.
(ABC) — Twenty-year-old Edith from Guatemala has remained in her home with her 1-year-old baby Justin for weeks after selling her only means of transportation. “Being stuck at home, locked up inside, is very, very difficult for us,” she told ABC News. Edith, a U.S. citizen who was raised in Guatemala and requested she only be referred to by her first name out of concern over her privacy, sold her car and spent her life savings to pay someone who…
MyCentralOregon.com
Fake courtrooms, sham hearings: Immigrants targeted by scams amid Trump administration's deportation push
Fraudsters are posing as ICE officers, immigration lawyers and federal judges. (Evelin Flores) (NEW YORK) — Twenty-year-old Edith from Guatemala has remained in her home with her 1-year-old baby Justin for weeks after selling her only means of transportation. “Being stuck at home, locked up inside, is very, very difficult for us,” she told ABC News. Edith, a U.S. citizen who was raised in Guatemala and requested she only be referred to by her fi…
NBC Dallas-Fort Worth
Inside the heated clash over DHS 'master plan' for deportations
Homeland Security immigration leaders disagreed so vehemently over how to accomplish President Donald Trump’s goal of deporting 1 million people during his first year back in office that during a meeting over the issue, handlers had to “clear the room” to defuse tensions, two DHS officials familiar with the meeting told NBC News. At the center of the disagreement were Caleb Vitello, then the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcemen…
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