"Prime, But With Humans": US Immigration Chief Urges Amazon-Like Deportations

The US deportation process should be more organised, efficient and faster like Amazon Prime delivers packages, the director of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Todd Lyons has said.

Comparing the deportation process to Amazon Prime, the law enforcement officer said the process of deporting people should be streamlined and less complicated.

He said, "We need to get better at treating this like a business." He explained that he wanted to see a deportation process "like (Amazon) Prime, but with human beings," as per the AZ Mirror.

In the same manner that Amazon trucks go around American communities delivering items, he said his vision for the department was to have teams rounding up immigrants for deportation.

The comment caused controversy, with an advocacy group targeting Mr Lyons for "dehumanising" immigrants.

Cinthya Rodriguez, national organiser for the Latinx advocacy group Mijente, said, "Over the years, ICE has contracted with tech companies to automate policing, relying on the dehumanization of immigrant communities."

She added, "To seek to automate deportations at Amazon-like speed only furthers that harm. These policies are cruel, reckless and driven by white supremacy and greed-not safety."

Mr Lyons also revealed that he was working with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) headed by Elon Musk. He said that this team was helping him get access to people's Social Security numbers so that ICE could search for cases of voter fraud.

During the 2025 Border Security Expo at the Phoenix Convention Center, Mr Lyon, along with Tom Homan, Trump's "border czar," and Kristi Noem, the secretary of the US Department of Homeland Security, spoke about immigration and deportation policies.

Several officials praised Trump for doing great work using an old law to deport Venezuelans.

Ms Noem said she would use the same law even more to deport other immigrants quickly.

Mr Homan said he wants to use new technology like artificial intelligence (AI) to help speed up deportations. He said that AI could free up bed space, adding it could reduce the number of immigrants held in detention for longer periods. AI could also help in organise deportation flights, he added.

"We need to buy more beds, we need more airplane flights, and I know a lot of you are here for that reason," he said.

Mr Homan, who served as the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement during Trump's first term, further said, "Let the badge and guns do the badge and gun stuff; everything else, let's contract out."