Politico reports:

Stephen Miller was unequivocal: Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers would seek to arrest 3,000 or more immigrants per day, a staggering target that he said was necessary to carry out President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda.

“Under President Trump’s leadership, we are looking to set a goal of a minimum of 3,000 arrests for ICE every day and President Trump is going to keep pushing to get that number up higher each and every day,” the senior White House adviser told Fox News’ Sean Hannity in May.

But when federal judges pressed for details about that figure last week, the administration denied any such quota existed. The contradiction came in a lawsuit that alleged the intense pressure to rack up arrests had led ICE to conduct illegal sweeps in Los Angeles.

It’s not the only case that has featured the 3,000-arrest-per-day target as a crucial piece of evidence that the administration’s single-minded drive to rack up arrests may have prompted immigration authorities to cut corners or break the law. Washington-based Judge Jia Cobb, a Biden appointee, cited the figure when she ruled Friday that the administration’s dramatic expansion of “expedited” deportation proceedings violated the law. And Judge Trina Thompson, a Biden appointee in San Francisco, pointed to the purported goal Thursday when she blocked the administration’s bid to end temporary protected status for tens of thousands of Nicaraguan, Honduran and Nepali immigrants.

But on Wednesday, the Justice Department said no such orders had ever been given. [Continue reading…]