By Steve Neavling
The Trump administration is preparing to oust hundreds of senior Department of Homeland Security officials this week, part of an effort to reshape the agency by removing those seen as obstacles to its agenda, three sources familiar with the plan told NBC News.
The sources said the administration has developed a “centralized plan” with a list of high-ranking DHS employees who will be dismissed. The cuts will add to a broader wave of firings that began Friday night, targeting personnel at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, as part of a government-wide effort to shrink the federal workforce.
This week’s planned removals, sources told NBC News, will focus on top managerial positions, particularly those in the Senior Executive Service and General Schedule 15 levels. Unlike previous cuts aimed at downsizing, these firings are meant to clear out employees viewed as impeding the administration’s objectives for DHS.
DHS oversees agencies like CBP and ICE, which have been central to Trump’s immigration enforcement strategy. CBP has played a key role in securing the southern border, while ICE has ramped up arrests and deportations of undocumented immigrants.
“The employees at those high levels “are career people who have an influence on policy and strategy in those positions,” a former senior Biden administration official said.
A Trump administration official defended the move, arguing that removing these employees would not hinder DHS’s ability to carry out immigration policies.
“These individuals have been obstructing progress, and their removal is necessary,” the official said.
A DHS spokesperson said in a statement, “Under President Trump’s leadership, we are implementing sweeping reforms across the federal government to eliminate waste and inefficiency that have persisted for decades at the taxpayer’s expense.”
