The Department of Homeland Security has set a new record for detaining illegal immigrants, with more than 59,000 in ICE custody according to new agency numbers released this week.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has also increased its pace of arrests, to roughly 930 a day, and deportations, which are now running at a record pace of more than 1,400 a day in the last two weeks.
By contrast in December and January, during the last weeks of the Biden administration, ICE’s arrests ranged from about 215 to 300 per day and deportations hovered between 500 and 700.
At the current pace, ICE could deport more than half a million people in a year. That would shatter the previous record for formal deportations set in 2012, during the Obama administration.
ICE had been hovering at around 57,000 people in detention for most of June and July, as the Trump administration awaited action by Congress to pass the Big Beautiful Bill budget law. That pumps tens of billions of dollars into ICE operations, including money to add 100,000 detention beds.
The new record drew jabs from immigration advocates.
“Fueled by $45 billion in funding, more people are being held in immigration custody than ever before in U.S. history,” the American Immigration Council said Friday. “But as the Trump administration increases detention capacity, concerns are rising about a strained system that has led to mistaken deportations, deteriorating detention conditions, and a lack of basic due process protections.”
Indeed, a federal judge this week ordered improvements to an ICE facility in New York, where some migrants were forced to sleep on the floor.
The arrest and deportation numbers fall well below the target of 1 million that some administration officials have suggested.
Part of that is Mr. Trump’s success at the border. The Border Patrol caught just 4,600 people along the U.S.-Mexico boundary last month, and put 2,200 of them into expedited removal, or speedy deportations.
By contrast, in July 2024 agents caught 56,000 and put 28,000 into expedited removal.
With fewer border cases, ICE has been able to focus instead on the interior, arresting and ousting illegal immigrants who’d already put down some roots.
In early June, as Mr. Trump sent ICE to target Los Angeles, ICE’s daily arrest numbers peaked at nearly 1,200. They then fell to about 850 a day in July before rebounding to more than 900 for the period from July 26 through Aug. 9.
Deportations, meanwhile, have steadily been ticking up.
Around Inauguration Day, the daily average stood at 630. It rose to more than 900 in late April, topped 1,100 in June and now stands at 1,435 a day.
ICE is increasingly snaring people without criminal records.
Among the migrants being detained on Aug. 9, 36% had criminal convictions and another 31% had pending charges, leaving 33% that only had immigration violations on their records.
At the end of the Biden administration, more than 60% had criminal convictions and less than 8% of those being detained had only immigration violations.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.