Trump Advisor Earns $240,000 Annually Driving Immigration Crackdown

Jacalynne Becker Klopp, a border and immigration advisor, holds the highest salary in President Trump’s White House, earning nearly a quarter of a million dollars annually. This compensation surpasses that of several high-ranking officials in the West Wing, including the White House Chief of Staff, Press Secretary, and the border czar. Klopp's salary is also comparable to that of the current Secretary of Homeland Security, who earns around $230,000.

Klopp's role as an advisor with the special designation of detailee, meaning an employee on loan from a federal agency to the White House, may contribute to her high salary. Staffers on detail often have higher salaries at their home agencies than those allocated for traditional executive staffers. However, the agency that detailed Klopp to the West Wing remains unspecified.

Despite her high salary, little is known about Klopp's background and duties. She has a long history working for the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Klopp, a Florida native, graduated from Tulane University in 2005 with a major in political science. She has been registered as a Republican in Florida since 2000.

Klopp's government career began in 2004 when she worked in the office of the majority whip in the House of Representatives. She then moved on to an unspecified position in the White House Office of Political Affairs in the Bush administration. In August 2005, she moved to the Department of Homeland Security, working first as a confidential assistant in the office of the secretary and then as a special assistant to the secretary until 2009.

From 2009 to 2012, Klopp worked as a consultant at the Sentinel HS Group, a homeland security consultancy with past federal contracts with DHS and border patrol. By 2014, she rejoined the federal government, working at ICE in enforcement and removal operations (ERO). Her exact job title is not clear, but she worked at ICE making just under $139,000 annually in the ERO division until 2016.

Declassified archived transition team documents from 2016 name Klopp as ERO Operations Support Assistant Director. In this role, she worked under Trump’s current border czar Tom Homan. Legal filings have her holding the same title in 2019, when she was named in a lawsuit alleging migrant detainee mistreatment at an ICE facility. The suit initially resulted in a preliminary injunction requiring ICE to implement measures like identifying and tracking detainees with COVID-19 risk factors, but was ultimately overturned. As of 2022, Klopp was still listed as an assistant director at ERO.

Given Klopp’s extensive history at ICE, her duties in the White House are likely part of the Trump administration’s vast immigration crackdown that aims to significantly expand the role and operations of ICE. Trump has repeatedly expressed his support of mass deportations with a goal of at least 3,000 ICE arrests per day. The president previously told Time Magazine he wanted to target 15 million people for removal.

To support these initiatives, President Trump and his administration have sought to increase funding for immigration detention centers and expand ICE resources and personnel. The recently passed “Big, Beautiful Bill” allocates $100 billion to ICE and border enforcement through September 2029. The legislation also allocates nearly $29.9 billion for ICE’s deportation and enforcement operations and $45 billion for detention centers.