Washington DC - Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has announced new leadership changes at US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) amid the Trump administration's efforts to accelerate mass deportations.

Noem has promoted Todd Lyons, acting executive associate director of ICE – Enforcement and Removal Operations, to direct the agency.

Additionally, the former South Dakota governor announced Madison Sheahan, secretary of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, as ICE's deputy director.

"Adding more people to the team with Todd and with Madison is going to allow us to partner with local law enforcement officials to make sure that we truly are following through on enforcing the law, and if you break our law, then there's going to be consequences," Noem told CBS' Face the Nation.

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The news comes after ICE's former acting director Caleb Vitello was removed and reassigned last month.

Noem also confirmed to CBS that there are plans in place to use the Fort Bliss Army base in Texas for immigrant detention.

"We're going to keep them there till the whole world gets the message that this isn't Joe Biden's world anymore," she said of military personnel at the US-Mexico border. "This is President Donald Trump's country, where we have a border, where we have laws, and it applies equally to everybody."

Noem has also said she is pursuing measures to punish people within her own department accused of leaking information about planned ICE raids to the media, including prosecuting two employees already facing such allegations.

"They will be prosecuted, and they could face up to 10 years in federal prison because they did that," Noem said during the CBS interview.

"Anyone who is leaking information outside of how something is planned for the safety of those law enforcement officers needs to be held accountable for that," she continued.

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Noem added that she will continue using polygraph lie detector tests to root out employees who have supposedly leaked information about immigration raids.

"The authorities that I have under the Department of Homeland Security are broad and extensive, and I plan to use every single one of them to make sure that we're following the law, that we are following the procedures in place to keep people safe, and that we're making sure we're following through on what President Trump has promised, that he's going to make America safe again," the Republican said.

Research indicates that immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than are people born in the US. Nevertheless, Trump and his allies have doubled down on racist narratives linking crime and immigration while moving to significantly expand mass detentions and deportations.