Immigration Hawk Reveals the ICE Memo That Would Have Sunk Any Democrat DHS Chief

DHS quietly softened ICE enforcement once already this year, and Trump had to fix it himself.

Now leaked guidance shows someone inside his department tried it again.

One immigration hawk says a memo just proved Democrats would already be impeached for this.

Markwayne Mullin's DHS Orders ICE to Stand Down on Noncriminal Arrests

Verbal guidance went out to ICE field offices around the country this week.

It told agents to pull back on arrests of illegal immigrants without criminal records.

The order got rescinded within hours – but not before it reached agents nationwide.

Trump told Fox News his enforcement posture still prioritizes the worst offenders first, without exempting anyone else.

Administration officials called it a misunderstanding, not a real policy shift.

Mike Howell wasn't buying the clean walk-back story.

Howell leads the Mass Deportation Coalition and runs The Oversight Project.

He says the guidance fits a pattern of DHS sending mixed signals on interior enforcement.

Howell credits public backlash for forcing the reversal, but says that's exactly the problem.

Mullin's Kansas Worksite Tweet Sparks ICE Backlash

One day before the guidance leaked, DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin posted something remarkable on X.

He claimed his department wasn't running worksite operations in Kansas at all.

Mullin said ICE was only targeting criminal illegal immigrants and people already facing removal.

That post followed ICE operations in Kansas cities including Liberal that infuriated Sen. Roger Marshall.

Marshall said DHS failed to coordinate with local authorities during the raids.

Howell says he's never seen a homeland security secretary put a claim like that in writing.

Then came his real gut punch.

"If Mayorkas tweeted that, I would have immediately called for his impeachment," Howell said.

He wasn't calling for Mullin's impeachment himself.

He was making a point about the double standard Republicans would never tolerate from a Democrat.

A Fox News Digital source called the flip-flopping unfair to the ICE agents actually doing the job.

Those same agents spent years navigating Biden-era enforcement priorities that changed just as often.

The source said agents see the mixed signals in real time and it's hurting operations on the ground.

DHS Guidance Reversals Expose Split over ICE Worksite Enforcement

This is the second time in three months an internal directive has pulled back enforcement, only for Trump to shut it down.

Back in July, someone inside DHS told agents to pause vehicle stops after a string of fatal ICE encounters.

Trump found out and overruled it within twenty-four hours.

"I.C.E., be judicious, fair and smart, and go back and do your very important job," Trump posted.

He said the agency could not give up "one of ICE's most important and effective Crime Fighting tools."

Mullin fell in line fast and said publicly he and Trump were aligned.

Conservative activist Mike Davis said at the time someone was feeding Mullin advice from Sen. Susan Collins instead of Trump voters.

Two rogue reversals in three months isn't a coincidence.

It's a pattern of bureaucrats trying to slow-walk what voters actually elected Trump to do.

Mark Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studies says the deeper problem is worksite enforcement.

He argues it's essential to encouraging self-deportation, but it creates real political tension inside the coalition.

Krikorian's point is simple: DHS shouldn't be publicly signaling restraint that voters never asked for.

K Street lobbyists want cheap labor for chicken plants, hotel laundry rooms, and construction sites, and they don't much care whose papers are fake to get it.

That's the pressure that produces a quiet no-worksite-raids tweet.

It's not what put Trump in office, and it's not what the base is watching for.

Trump won a second term promising the largest deportation operation in American history.

He didn't win it promising a policy that quietly turns into amnesty for anyone without a rap sheet.

The base didn't vote for nuance.

They voted for enforcement, full stop.

Howell's impeachment line makes the point better than any press release could.

Republicans are holding their own DHS secretary to a standard no one ever held Democrats to.

That's the standard Trump voters expect this administration to clear, every time, no exceptions.

Sources:

• Charles Creitz, "ICE confusion ignites MAGA backlash: 'I would have called for impeachment,'" Fox News, September 29, 2026.
• Rebecca Santana, "Fatal ICE encounters, reversal over vehicle stops are first major test for DHS Secretary Mullin," Associated Press, July 16, 2026.
• "Trump rebukes reported ICE traffic stop pause: 'It won't happen on my watch,'" KATV, July 2026.