WASHINGTON — Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told senators during his confirmation hearing that his goal was to keep his department off the front pages of the news as he implements President Trump's mass deportation agenda. The Trump administration has shifted from aggressive, public-facing immigration enforcement tactics toward a quieter approach to enforcement.

"We're still enforcing immigration laws. We're still deporting illegals that shouldn't be here. We're still going after the worst of the worst — but we're doing it in a more quiet way," Mullin said.

The administration launched a series of immigration enforcement operations last year in mostly Democratic-led cities, driving up arrests in large-scale sweeps. Those operations produced clashes between protesters and enforcement officers and led to the shooting deaths of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis. No new high-profile city-based enforcement operations have been launched since.

ICE arrests have fallen in recent months. The number of people in immigration detention has dropped from roughly 72,000 in January to 58,000 recently. Last year, ICE removed roughly 442,000 people, while ICE budget documents say the agency plans to remove 1 million people this fiscal year and the next fiscal year.

"Clearly they've stepped back from the, for want of a better word, the Bovinoist tactics of before," said Mark Krikorian, president of the Center for Immigration Studies. The Trump administration says it is not backing down from its deportation goals.

Congress granted the Department of Homeland Security more than $170 billion for Trump's immigration agenda last year. The administration aims to have enough space to detain roughly 100,000 people this fiscal year and has purchased 11 warehouses across the country to expand detention capacity.

ICE agreements known as 287g have grown from 135 in 20 states before Trump took office to more than 1,400 in 41 states and territories. The agreements allow local law enforcement to check the immigration status of people in their jails and to incorporate immigration checks during routine traffic stops. Florida and Texas have mandated various forms of cooperation between local law enforcement and ICE.

The administration has also limited who can live in public housing based on immigration status, begun sharing Medicaid information with ICE, and required people in the country illegally to register with the federal government. "They are working really on building a juggernaut of a system," said Doris Meissner, a senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute.