Feds won't say why Kenmore native was reportedly removed from top job at ICE

The president cited Vitello’s “exceptional leadership, extensive experience and commitment” when he named Vitello acting director of U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement.

But Vitello, who took office Jan. 20, apparently lasted only a month on the job.

On Thursday, nobody in the Trump administration – including Vitello himself – would discuss why the decorated federal official was reportedly removed from the top post in ICE and reassigned elsewhere in the 20,000-employee government agency.

Media spokespersons from the Trump White House, Department of Homeland Security and ICE all declined to comment Thursday on questions from The News about Vitello’s recent removal from the job last week. Vitello, 46, did not respond to emails seeking his comment.

Officials of ICE, Homeland Security and the White House press office also declined on Thursday to comment on reports that Trump does not feel ICE has been arresting enough immigrants lacking permanent legal status and is unhappy about it.

Federal officials also declined to comment on whether a replacement for Vitello has been named, or who that person is.

“I don’t have anything further for you at this stage,” a Homeland Security spokeswoman emailed to The News after repeated inquiries by a reporter.

According to numerous media organizations, Vitello’s removal from office was confirmed on Feb. 21 in a statement from a Homeland Security spokeswoman, identified in media reports as Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs.

“He is no longer in an Administrative role,” the spokeswoman was quoted as stating, but Vitello “is overseeing all field and enforcement operations: finding, arresting and deporting illegal aliens, which is a major priority of the President and the Secretary” of Homeland Security.

ICE officials declined to comment Thursday when The News reached out by email and telephone to verify that statement.

McLaughlin’s reported statement did not say why Vitello was removed from ICE’s top leadership post, and government agencies declined to discuss it when contacted by The News on Thursday.

“We heard that the president appointed him, we heard that he was demoted from that job. We don’t know the official reasons why, and we haven’t heard who is replacing him,” said Anthony Enriquez, vice president for litigation at the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights organization. “All signs point to the likelihood that he was demoted because ICE was not arresting people quickly enough.”

One of Trump’s major campaign issues during the 2024 presidential campaign was his contention that drug-trafficking, murder and other violent crimes committed by migrants living in the country illegally threaten to destroy America. Trump repeatedly promised that Homeland Security and ICE would move quickly to deport millions of noncitizens.

Repeatedly calling migrants “animals,” Trump, during the campaign accused his opponent, former Vice President Kamala Harris, of allowing 647,000 “migrant criminals” to illegally enter the U.S. and to “rape, pillage, plunder and kill” Americans.

Critics of Trump’s rhetoric said he overstated the problem and overlooked the positive contributions of immigrants over the nation’s history.

“The common trope that immigration is linked to crime is not backed up by data and statistics,” said Colleen Putzel-Kavanaugh, an associate policy analyst with the Migration Policy Institute.

While Fox News and several other media organizations recently reported that Trump was unhappy with the pace of arrests, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Wednesday that “more than 20,000 illegal aliens were arrested” during Trump’s first month in office.

“That’s a 627% increase in monthly arrests compared to just 33,000 at large arrests under Biden for ALL of last year,” Homeland Security officials said in a news release.

“President Trump and this Administration are saving lives every day because of the actions we are taking to secure the border and deport illegal alien criminals. Hundreds of thousands of criminals were let into this country illegally,” Noem said. “We are sending them home, and they will never be allowed to return.”

The Wall Street Journal, CBS, NBC, Politico, Fox News, News Nation and The Hill are among the news organizations that have reported on Vitello’s removal from the top position at ICE.

None of those news organizations has identified Vitello’s replacement, and ICE and Homeland Security officials did not respond to questions from The News about a replacement.

ICE, which is part of the Homeland Security Department, has a $9 billion annual budget.

According to Vitello’s government bio, he began working for ICE in New York City in 2001, and before that, served on the White House National Security Council for interior enforcement, where he led a child and welfare safety program.

Vitello has served in several leadership roles in ICE, has been instrumental in setting up special operations teams and has won several director’s awards for his work, the agency said in his biography.

Vitello is a graduate of Kenmore West High School and the University at Buffalo.