Top Officials Overseeing Deportations Leave Their Roles at ICE

Several Immigration and Customs Enforcement leaders are leaving their roles, the agency announced on Thursday, in the third major change among its leadership in recent months.

Kenneth Genalo, the top ICE deportation official, is retiring; Garrett Ripa is leaving his job as Mr. Genalo’s deputy to return to a regional leadership role in Florida; and the person running the agency’s Homeland Security Investigations wing, Robert Hammer, is moving to a different job at ICE, the announcement said.

The Trump administration has struggled to meet President Trump’s campaign promises of mass deportations, grappling with a lack of extensive resources despite efforts to bring in personnel from other parts of the federal law enforcement system.

One of Mr. Trump’s top immigration officials, Tom Homan, has repeatedly said the agency needed to be doing more and that he wanted to see more arrests.

“I’m not satisfied with the numbers,” Mr. Homan told reporters on Thursday. “We need to increase.”

The announcement comes a day after Stephen Miller, a senior White House official, told Fox News that the White House was looking for ICE to arrest 3,000 people a day, a major increase in enforcement. The agency had arrested more than 66,000 people in the first 100 days of the Trump administration, an average of about 660 arrests a day.

“We are looking to set a goal of a minimum of 3,000 arrests for ICE every day, and President Trump is going to keep pushing to get that number up higher each and every single day,” Mr. Miller said.

Homeland security officials said the moves on Thursday were meant to help make Mr. Trump’s immigration promises a reality.

“Organizational realignments will help ICE achieve President Trump and the American people’s mandate of arresting and deporting criminal illegal aliens and making American communities safe,” the department’s announcement said.

In February, ICE moved two top officials overseeing deportation efforts. Soon after, the agency’s acting director, Caleb Vitello, was removed from his role as well.

“I say this with complete understanding that change is hard — but please know that our entire leadership team is here to support you,” Todd Lyons, ICE’s acting leader, wrote to staff on Thursday in an email obtained by The New York Times. “I’m proud to work alongside each of you, and I will always have your backs.”