The White House is seeking to more than triple the number of daily arrests made by Immigration and Customs Enforcement as the Trump administration ups its efforts to deport illegal immigrants.
The Department of Homeland Security’s overarching goal is to deport at least 1 million illegal immigrants by the end of President Donald Trump’s first year back in office. That number is nearly quadruple the migrants deported in fiscal 2024 during the Biden administration’s final year.
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During an appearance on Fox News’s Hannity on Wednesday evening, Trump’s deputy chief of staff for policy, Stephen Miller, confirmed rumors that to meet the latest ambitious deportation goal, ICE will be looking to make a minimum of 3,000 arrests per day. He revealed hopes to get that number up even higher in the coming months.
“Under President Trump’s leadership, we are looking to set a goal of a minimum of 3,000 arrests for ICE every day, and President Trump is going to keep pushing to get that number up higher each and every single day, so we can get all of the Biden illegals that were flooded into our country for four years out of our country,” Miller told Sean Hannity.
The number marks a hike from Miller’s previous push to have ICE make 1,875 arrests each day.
On Jan. 29, Trump’s senior adviser confirmed that he was asking each of ICE’s 25 field offices to detain a minimum of 75 migrants daily, saying during a CNN interview that “the goal is to arrest at least that many but hopefully, many more.” But as border crossings plummeted under the new administration’s sweeping immigration reforms, the White House struggled to meet even that goal. “Border czar” Tom Homan revealed that ICE arrested an estimated 14,000 people, or 666 daily, during Trump’s first three weeks in office.
On Wednesday, Miller said he was increasing the quota because “we can’t take the risk of letting these Biden illegals roam around freely so the next American daughter can get raped, the next American kid can get murdered, the next American family can get splintered and torn apart by people that came into this country unchecked, uncontrolled, unvetted, uninvited by the American people.”
In a statement to the Washington Examiner, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said Miller’s pledge followed through on Trump’s campaign promises regarding immigration reform.
“Under [Homeland Security] Secretary [Kristi] Noem, we are delivering on President Trump’s and the American people’s mandate to arrest and deport criminal illegal aliens and make America safe,” McLaughlin said.
WHITE HOUSE EYES 1 MILLION DEPORTATIONS — BUT HITTING THAT NUMBER WON’T BE EASY
There are already an estimated 1.4 million illegal immigrants who have final deportation orders but whose home countries will not take them back.
The Trump administration has attempted to deport some illegal immigrants to third-party countries but has faced court challenges due to laws putting restrictions on sending migrants to countries other than their homeland. Migrants can appeal deportation orders if they have reasonable cause to fear for their safety in a third country.