WASHINGTON - Migrant workers picked up at a well-known Italian restaurant in San Diego. A high school volleyball player detained and held for deportation after a traffic stop in Massachusetts. Courthouse arrests of people who entered the US legally and were not hiding.

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers have been intensifying efforts in recent weeks to deliver on Republican President Donald Trump’s promise of record-level deportations.

The White House has demanded the agency sharply increase arrests of migrants in the US illegally, sources have told Reuters.

That has meant changing tactics to achieve higher quotas of 3,000 arrests per day, far above the earlier target of 1,000 per day.

Community members and Democrats have pushed back, arguing that ICE is targeting people indiscriminately and stoking fear.

Tensions boiled over in Los Angeles over the weekend when protesters took to the streets after ICE arrested migrants at Home Depot stores, a garment factory and a warehouse, according to migrant advocates.

“It seems like they're just arresting people they think might be in the country without status and amenable to deportation,” said Ms Julia Gelatt, associate director of the US immigration policy program at the non-partisan Migration Policy Institute.

The apparent shift further undercuts the Trump administration message that they are focused on the "worst of the worst" criminal offenders, and suggests they are pursuing more people solely on the basis of immigration violations.

Mr Trump's border czar, Mr Tom Homan, told Reuters in late May that the administration had deported around 200,000 people over four months.

The total lags deportations during a similar period under former President Joe Biden, who faced higher levels of illegal immigration and quickly deported many recent crossers.

ICE’s operations appeared to intensify after Mr Stephen Miller, a top White House official and the architect of Mr Trump’s immigration agenda, excoriated senior ICE officials in a late May meeting over what he said were insufficient arrests.

During the meeting, Mr Miller said ICE should pick up any immigration offende...