One of the most ardent supporters of President Donald Trump’s promise to implement a mass-deportation campaign has a message for the White House: Try harder.

The Trump administration’s focus on deporting immigrants with criminal records – “the worst of the worst” in its words — is too narrow, said Mike Howell, a visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation. He’s pushing for large-scale workplace raids to drive deportations much higher.

“I am not happy about the deportation numbers, and I am not happy about what I see as fake deportation stats,” Howell said in an interview. “Just focus on the workplace and the numbers would be far more what they should be.”

Heritage laid out its road map for mass deportations in its Project 2025 report, which has served as a guide for much of the Trump’s first year back in office. It’s a vision that has been championed by Trump adviser Stephen Miller, who’s one of the most influential figures in the White House, and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

Howell’s critique highlights a growing tension inside Trump’s coalition: how to pursue aggressive immigration enforcement without undermining the economy ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. The debate has played out within the MAGA movement and conservative circles, including at Heritage where staff departures and leadership disputes underscore wider divisions on the right.

The White House has touted increased arrests and a sharp decline in illegal border crossings as evidence of success. But deportations haven’t surged to the level many within the Trump administration expected, constrained by court rulings, detention capacity and resistance from some nations that receive deportees.

Howell, who published a widely circulated paper calling for expanded deportations last month, said he’s in frequent public and private discussions on the issue, which he described as a top priority for conservatives.

{snip}

Trump’s crackdown has already had a major impact on immigration. Crossings at the southwest border have slowed to a trickle after the administration curbed access to asylum, a dramatic shift from the record inflows during the Biden administration.

At the same time, the White House has also moved to restrict legal immigration pathways, revoking temporary and humanitarian protections for more than a million foreigners and advancing proposals like imposing a $100,000 fee for high-skilled H-1B work visas.

Since January, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has made more than 312,000 arrests and carried out roughly 335,000 deportations. Including people arrested at the border, caught at sea or turned away at airports, DHS said total removals now exceed 600,000. DHS doesn’t publish data showing how many of those arrested had criminal records, but one analysis shows at least a third had no prior criminal history.

{snip}

Howell said workplace enforcement will have to follow if the administration is serious about carrying out mass deportations, arguing there is little alternative.

“I want to make it as impossible as possible for an illegal alien to live in the United States without fear,” he said. “I want to see large workplace raids. The absence of large-scale raids is proof of mass deportation not being implemented.”

The post Trump Slammed by Heritage Hardliner Over ‘Fake’ Deportations appeared first on American Renaissance.