The former head of ICE in New York City said there should be a significant increase in the number of agents if the Trump administration wants a massive rise in arrests.

“We’d need to increase the personnel available in New York. I’m saying at least triple. I mean that still wouldn’t get how many — you’re talking about thousands and thousands and thousands,” Thomas Decker told NY1.

What You Need To Know

  • The former ICE director in New York City said he believes the number of agents should triple to handle arrests needed to be made

  • ICE arrested 20 people in New York City on Tuesday, according to the Washington Post

  • It serves as a significant increase compared to the average daily arrests in the city during the final month of available data during the Biden presidency

The thousands he is referring to are people he said who’ve been ordered deported — despite exhausting their appeals but have not left — and people with criminal convictions.

On Tuesday was the first significant immigration enforcement in New York City during the second term of the Trump administration.

Enforcement occurred under President Joe Biden. The last full month of data available showed there were 161 arrests in Sept. 2024 by the New York City division of ICE.

On Tuesday morning before dawn, federal agents were out in the Bronx making arrests.

There were 20 people arrested that day, according to the Washington Post. ICE did not respond to repeated NY1 inquiries about the numbers.

“20 a day is a drop,” said Decker, when informed about the data during his NY1 interview.

Decker said he could not give a number of how many he believes could be arrested in a single day with current staffing, only that he wouldn’t be surprised if it is more than 20, eventually.  

When asked why there were, on average, about five arrests per day in Sept. 2024 under President Biden yet 20 on the first day of enhanced enforcement under President Donald Trump, he said he believed a significant factor was personnel.

Decker said there were New York City ICE agents that were tied up processing new arrivals. In 2022, NY1 reported on the line that began overnight for appointments the following day at the main federal immigration facility in lower Manhattan.

He added others were even down at the southern border when crossings surged in recent years. Those numbers have since dropped significantly.

“Now New York City ERO office can be back to their normal force,” he said.

He said the new Department of Homeland Security policy allowing other federal agents, including from the DEA and ATF, to assist in ICE arrests can make a difference, too.

Photos released by the Trump administration on Tuesday showed agents from both the DEA and the ATF on hand in New York City.

He said in his experience, teams of five to six are typically working to arrest a single person. The operations can take hours concluding investigations that can take months.

He said sometimes investigations take longer than they would, if not for New York City’s sanctuary laws, which in part restrict how ICE can coordinate with local law enforcement.

“We have a great relationship with NYPD. We have a great relationship with [the] Department of Corrections,” he said. “They’re both handcuffed of working with us.”

On Tuesday, 12 of the 20 people arrested in the city Tuesday had violent criminal convictions, according to the Washington Post.

The status of the other eight and why they were arrested were not disclosed by ICE.

“If they’re here illegally and they have nothing pending that’s keeping them here or they have a final order of deportation and they should be gone already, then they should be worried. If they are a criminal and they are here illegally or have a final order, they should be worried,” said Decker. “If they have something pending that is keeping them in the United States legally, then they should have no worries.”

But the Trump administration has said they will pick up anyone without status, even if they aren’t the target in these operations. That marks a significant change in how ICE operated under President Joe Biden.

It also represents one of the common fears NY1 has heard from advocates for undocumented immigrants.

In an ICE operation in Newark, New Jersey last week, the mayor reported that undocumented immigrants and U.S. citizens were detained at a fish market during the investigation. In the end, ICE arrested a couple of undocumented immigrants.

“U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement may encounter U.S. citizens while conducting fieldwork and may request identification to establish an individual’s identity as was the case during a targeted enforcement operation at a worksite today in Newark, New Jersey,” an ICE spokesperson said to NY1 in a statement last Thursday.