In yet more proof that the Trump administration can’t get on the same page, the Environmental Protection Agency and Immigration and Customs Enforcement are reportedly clashing over how and when to carry out immigration arrests, particularly at shared federal buildings.
ICE agents have been arresting immigrants at the EPA’s downtown Manhattan building, which also houses a Department of Justice immigration court. Immigrants are being picked up immediately after their hearings—either after a deportation order or a case dismissal—leaving little room for appeal. It’s an aggressive new tactic to deny immigrants due process, as part of President Donald Trump’s broader push to inflate deportation stats.
But the move has sparked chaos inside the building, with EPA officials having to warn employees not to interfere with ICE operations and to display badges to avoid being mistaken for targets. That hasn’t done much to ease nerves.
Related | ICE attorneys find horrific new way to fast-track deportations
“Several members of our union have witnessed people being detained as they exit elevators, put in handcuffs, taken away somewhere. Generally, people have started to feel unsafe,” said Suzanne Englot, president of Local 3911 of the American Federation of Government Employees.
Englot also noted that EPA employees have felt intimidated by ICE agents. That unease is compounding an already hostile work environment.
“I think for a lot of people, this is just adding another really awful thing on top of what has already been a really tough few months,” she said.
The backdrop here is a dramatic escalation in Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda. White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, frustrated that ICE’s arrest numbers weren’t high enough, has reportedly berated and threatened to fire top ICE officials unless they begin detaining at least 3,000 immigrants every day.
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin
That pressure campaign is now being carried out through “Operation at Large,” the Trump administration’s largest immigration crackdown to date. According to NBC News, it involves more than 5,000 personnel from across federal law enforcement and up to 21,000 National Guard troops.
And it’s not just EPA workers who are sounding the alarm. Some law enforcement officials are also pushing back, though it’s less about morality and more about logistics, as agents have been pulled from core national security priorities just to support Trump’s spectacle.
Meanwhile, the EPA has already been one of Trump’s preferred punching bags in his broader assault on the federal workforce. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has worked to weaken the agency and promote climate denialism from the inside out.
Trump has spent years trying to gut the EPA and roll back environmental protections. Now in Trump’s second term, the agency’s battered staff are forced to navigate hallways that have become holding pens for ICE arrests. This isn’t the first time that EPA employees have pushed back against Trump’s brutal agenda, but now the conflict is spilling over, putting them at odds with other federal workers caught in the crossfire.
Immigration officials have historically avoided courthouse arrests because of concerns that they might scare off people with upcoming hearings. But now, even that line is being erased.
This is more than just interagency dysfunction; it’s a case study on how Trump’s war on immigrants is spilling into other parts of government—and turning federal workers into collateral damage.
Campaign Action
