A senior immigration official warned in early 2025 that the Trump administration’s plan to sharply accelerate deportations could result in U.S. citizens being wrongfully detained inside their homes — and was removed from his post within days of pressing the concern, according to reporting by NBC News cited in a recent article in The Independent.
Caleb Vitello, then the acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, raised the warning during a February meeting with Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott and members of Scott’s team, the report said. The dispute escalated to the point that aides to both men ended the meeting and cleared the room, according to officials at the Department of Homeland Security cited by The Independent.
The plan under discussion — approved by then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem — would have established a National Incident Command Center, drawing on resources from ICE, CBP, and the Pentagon, to push annual deportations to 1 million people. The target aligned with President Donald Trump’s pledge to carry out the largest removal operation in U.S. history.
Under the proposed framework, federal agents would have been authorized to enter the last known addresses of immigrants with outstanding removal orders without judicial warrants, and detained individuals would have faced accelerated deportation proceedings with no avenue for appeal, DHS officials told NBC News.
Vitello’s objection focused on the operational risk of executing such raids against an outdated address list. According to the report, records for the roughly 700,000 people with prior removal orders had not been recently verified, and warrantless home entries could result in U.S. citizens being swept up in the operation.
The Independent reported that Scott pounded the table during the exchange, while Vitello remained in place. Within days, Vitello was replaced by Todd Lyons as acting ICE director.
Concerns Echoed in Minneapolis
Vitello’s warnings drew renewed attention months later, when federal immigration agents conducting an enforcement surge in Minneapolis fatally shot two U.S. citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, in January.
A Marist poll the following month found that nearly two-thirds of Americans believed ICE’s actions had gone too far, the report noted.
Trump himself appeared to acknowledge that adjustments were needed. In a February interview with NBC News, the president said, “I learned that maybe we could use a little bit of a softer touch”, while adding that aggressive enforcement would continue.
The proposed command center never materialized in its original form, but elements of the plan have been implemented. The Independent reported that in May, Lyons authorized federal agents to detain individuals with removal orders inside their residences using administrative warrants issued by ICE offices, rather than judicial warrants signed by a judge — a key procedural shift that bypasses court oversight at the point of entry.
Cabinet Fallout
In March, as public criticism of the administration’s immigration enforcement intensified, Trump fired Noem — making her the first Cabinet member dismissed in his second term, according to the report. Corey Lewandowski, her top aide, departed shortly afterward.
The administration has so far fallen well short of its annual deportation goal. At an April congressional hearing, Lyons testified that approximately 570,000 people had been deported since Trump’s inauguration, the report said — a pace short of the one-million-per-year target.
The dispute between Vitello and Scott is one of several reported confrontations inside the second Trump administration.
In April 2025, then-Department of Government Efficiency leader Elon Musk and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had a heated argument at the White House over the future of the Internal Revenue Service, witnesses told Axios, a report cited by The Independent. The exchange reportedly continued from the Oval Office into a hallway, where the president witnessed it.
Musk has also been involved in disputes with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, according to The New York Times, which The Independent also cited.
In a statement to Axios, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt described internal disagreements as a normal feature of the administration’s policy process and said officials ultimately serve at the president’s pleasure.
The Independent reported that it had contacted DHS, ICE, and CBP for comment on the Vitello-Scott meeting.
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