Its agents are immigration officers, like officials at Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, which is also part of the Department of Homeland Security. While ICE has traditionally operated in the country, Border Patrol’s focus is the 6,000 miles of international border and a zone of about 100 miles inland.

A federal judge has ordered three top leaders of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement operations, including Border Patrol Chief Gregory Bovino, to answer questions under oath as the court examines whether federal agents violated the judge's temporary restraining order during recent operations in the Chicago area.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump's administration has promised tens of thousands of federal agents carrying out his immigration crackdown that they will be paid during the government shutdown, according to emails seen by Reuters, even as other federal workers go without pay.

Over 250,000 Americans have applied to become federal law enforcement with the Department of Homeland Security’s Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Washington Examiner has learned.

The heavily armed agents carrying out President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration enforcement push in Chicago are often masked. The man leading them is not.

But the federal judge limited the deposition of Gregory Bovino to “how” federal officers are aggressively enforcing immigration law, not “why” they're doing it in Chicago.

Plus: Chicagoans are blowing the whistle on ICE, a workshop for Mexican immigrants interested in self-deportation and more.

Illegal crossings in 2025 have plunged to the lowest level since 1970 amid an aggressive crackdown by the Trump administration, according to the Department of Homeland Security. U.S. Border Patrol recorded roughly 238,000 migrant apprehensions in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, down from more than 1.5 million apprehensions in fiscal 2024.

The Trump administration's mass deportation crackdown has sent waves through sanctuary cities Chicago and Portland in recent weeks.

The Trump administration has announced it closed out fiscal year 2025 with the lowest U.S. Border Patrol apprehensions since 1970 with 237,565 encounters.

Trump’s administration will pay tens of thousands of ICE and CBP agents during the shutdown, shielding them from missed pay as other federal workers go unpaid. US PresidentDonald Trump's administration has promised tens of thousands of federal agents carrying out his immigration crackdown that they will be paid during the government shutdown,

A federal judge ordered immigration agents this month not to use tear gas on journalists and protesters who pose no threat — yet the incidents have continued.