Argentina’s ICE? Milei government advances immigration agency plans

While footage showing violent raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency in the United States goes viral across the world, Argentina is moving forward with its own plans for a new national immigration security agency.

Security Minister Alejandra Monteoliva confirmed this week that Diego Valenzuela, the former mayor of Tres de Febrero, will head the new “Agencia Nacional de Migraciones,” or National Immigration Agency. The body will focus on border control, have the capacity to take part in security operations and specialise in immigration.

Within the ruling party, officials reject any comparison between the new agency and ICE. However, there are figures who acknowledge that the association is automatic. US President Donald Trump’s anti-immigration rhetoric has long echoed within La Libertad Avanza, which in 2025 pushed through an amendment of the National Immigration Law via Decree 366.

In November, the Executive decided to transfer control of the National Directorate of Migration from the Interior Ministry to the Security Ministry. It announced the creation of the agency, which is only now beginning to take shape.

Tensions between protégés

According to government sources, the new agency was the brainchild of former security minister Patricia Bullrich, who pitched it to the President last year. Since then, meetings have been held to define its structure and scope. Officials from the Legal & Technical Secretariat, Security Ministry and Deregulation & State Transformation Ministry have been included in the talks.

The process has taken longer than expected. The LetraP website has reported that the delay is due to internal tensions between Monteoliva and Valenzuela – who are both protégés of Bullrich. The minister wanted a low-profile agency with limited responsibilities for national security –  in other words, an area that would not “overshadow” her own management. The former mayor wants the opposite.

These differences have led to disputes, according to sources familiar with the meetings. They attempted to play down the confrontation: “These are natural issues that arise when defining the functions and missions of a new body.”

Monteoliva confirmed the creation of the agency this week during an interview on Radio Mitre. “He has not yet been appointed,” she said regarding Valenzuela, adding: “The idea is for him to join the team once the decree is issued.”

Objectives

Once the creation of the Agencia Nacional de Migraciones is published in the Official Gazette, its scope will become clear – as will the debate over who won out. 

What is known is that there is a clear intention to change the long-standing approach to the subject. “Immigration has become a strategic and geopolitical issue. Throughout history, it [the National Directorate of Migration] dealt with administering procedures such as residency and citizenship. At Ezeiza [international airport], for example, at control posts you had a civilian answering to the Interior Ministry and an officer from the Airport Security Police (PSA) reporting to Security. The aim is to achieve integration,” said officials from the ruling party

The new agency is expected to become the authority responsible for enforcing the law. It will be granted new and expanded powers. Not only is the new body expected to have a presence at all Argentina’s border posts, it will also be able to participate in operations.

Valenzuela dreams of eventually creating a immigration police – a specialised body working alongside the Airport Security Police, the Argentine Federal Police and the Coast Guard. 

“All the forces are highly professional and already work on border issues. The PSA, with its experience, could be the seed of a new force so that everyone stationed at an immigration post has police status,” people close to the former mayor said.

Preparing the ground

Last month, on January 25, the Security Ministry carried out an operation in Villa Celina, La Matanza, in Buenos Aires Province, together with the Argentine Federal Police. The authorities released a video of the operation with an exaggerated staging. A total of 385 foreign nationals were checked, 16 of whom were in an irregular situation.

Around that time, rumours circulated that Monteoliva had brought the operation forward to overshadow Valenzuela’s coming arrival. Whether true or not, the minister has made immigration into one of her most frequent posting topics on social media. On January 26, for example, she celebrated Argentina achieving a “historic record” number of expelled migrants. “It’s simple: if you’re foreign, have a criminal record, commit crimes, want to enter or are here illegally – out” you go, she said.

However, the anti-immigration campaign goes beyond the portfolio’s remit – it has already become part of Milei’s ideological framework. Influencer and informal presidential spokesperson Iñaki Gutiérrez, for example, recently went viral with a video in which he claimed that “70 percent of the inhabitants of Argentina’s villas, or shantytowns, are foreigners who entered the country illegally.”

The information was false. Fact-checking website Chequeado, using data from the Buenos Aires City government’s Observatory of Human Development and Habitat found that, of the total population of informal settlements in 2024, only 34.4 percent were born in neighbouring countries.

Shift in policy

Off the record, a political figure who supports the creation of the new agency said without hesitation that in 2024, 60 percent of those detained in the capital, were foreign nationals. That figure is likely to be repeated by libertarians in the debates to come. 

However, that number is also false. According to the latest monthly report on detainees held at police stations and in holding cells by City Police, published by the National Prison Prosecutor’s Office, only 16.5 percent of all detainees did not hold Argentine nationality.

Within La Libertad Avanza, the shift in immigration policy is not solely a rhetorical issue. A decree issued last year restricted non-resident foreigners’ access to the public healthcare system, allowed universities to charge tuition fees to international students and tightened control and expulsion protocols.

With the creation of a new agency, the government aims to consolidate a change of paradigm that combines control, security and political messaging. The real scope of the new body will depend on the decree that gives it its final form, but the direction is already clear: immigration has moved from being an administrative policy to becoming a central banner of the libertarian project — as one might expect, in the image and likeness of the White House.