Immigration and Customs Enforcement is on track to arrest approximately one million illegal immigrants by the end of the Trump administration—an impressive number, though still short of President Donald Trump’s goal, according to a report this week.
The update comes as Republicans in the House and Senate push to include provisions for border security, deportation, and additional funding in an upcoming spending package, which could lead to a significant increase in ICE arrests, Just the News reported.
As the Trump administration continues its push for mass deportations, the agency responsible for arresting and removing illegal immigrants, U.S. ICE, has ceased posting daily arrest and detainer data. Despite this, border czar Tom Homan has maintained that arrests are proceeding as planned, even in the face of leaks and public pushback, the outlet reported.
Before February 1, ICE regularly updated its daily figures on arrests and detainers nationwide. However, this practice stopped earlier this week on its X account, which now focuses on highlighting the arrest of the most dangerous criminal figures.
The agency’s most recent enforcement update, covering January 31, reported 864 arrests and 621 detainers. The first such update appeared on January 23, showing 538 arrests. Daily arrests peaked at 1,179 on January 27. Despite the shift in reporting, Homan reassured that ICE’s efforts are ongoing and that arrest numbers have not decreased, Just the News added.
“I think the arrest numbers I looked at, I just talked about this morning. I think the arrests are right around over 11,000 so far since day one,” Homan told reporters on Thursday.
Excluding Thursday figures and counting from January 20, the 11,000 arrests would average nearly 650 per day. If this rate continues, Trump would be on track to arrest just under 1 million illegal immigrants during the remainder of his term.
However, the president has expressed a goal of deporting as many as 20 times that amount. Fortunately for Trump, the latter half of his first 10 days appears to show an increase in the pace of arrests. Additionally, ICE benefits from a declining number of daily arrests at the southern border, thanks to fewer arrivals, Just the News noted further.
“I mean yesterday, at 24 hours, it was less than 50 border arrests. It wasn’t too long ago we had 11,000 arrests a day under the Biden administration. We got less than 500,” Homan said.
He had previously suggested that arrests and deportations would start off slowly but increase exponentially as the administration set up the infrastructure needed for larger-scale operations. Even within the first two weeks of Trump’s efforts, that trend seems to be taking shape, noted the outlet.
However, Homan is currently facing challenges with capacity issues and leaks that are undermining individual operations. This has been a recurring problem, particularly during the first administration, when then-Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen’s office was plagued with leaks, most notably from Miles Taylor, also known as “anonymous.”
Some insiders appear to be out of sync with the Trump administration’s efforts to deport illegal immigrants. On Thursday, Homan confirmed that ICE’s planned raid on apartment buildings in Aurora, Colo., had been leaked. As a result, ICE agents arrived to find empty apartments and protesters at the location, Just the News reported.
Aurora was in the headlines during the 2024 presidential campaign as Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua occupied multiple apartment complexes in the city.
“We’ve already identified how this operation got leaked. I’ll deal with that today,” he told Fox News. “To have this type of interference puts the officers at great risk.”
He also suggested that the agency would likely restrict media access to its operations to limit ways for information to reach operational targets.
“We’ve invited numerous media outlets along, but right now it’s all about [OPSEC] operational security, so we may have to stop the media ride-alongs because I’m not pointing the finger at [them], but the less people that know about these operations, the safer it is for our agents,” he told reporters. “So we’re looking at that right now.”
Immigration and Customs Enforcement is on track to arrest approximately one million illegal immigrants by the end of the Trump administration—an impressive number, though still short of President Donald Trump’s goal, according to a report this week.
The update comes as Republicans in the House and Senate push to include provisions for border security, deportation, and additional funding in an upcoming spending package, which could lead to a significant increase in ICE arrests, Just the News reported.
As the Trump administration continues its push for mass deportations, the agency responsible for arresting and removing illegal immigrants, U.S. ICE, has ceased posting daily arrest and detainer data. Despite this, border czar Tom Homan has maintained that arrests are proceeding as planned, even in the face of leaks and public pushback, the outlet reported.
Before February 1, ICE regularly updated its daily figures on arrests and detainers nationwide. However, this practice stopped earlier this week on its X account, which now focuses on highlighting the arrest of the most dangerous criminal figures.
The agency’s most recent enforcement update, covering January 31, reported 864 arrests and 621 detainers. The first such update appeared on January 23, showing 538 arrests. Daily arrests peaked at 1,179 on January 27. Despite the shift in reporting, Homan reassured that ICE’s efforts are ongoing and that arrest numbers have not decreased, Just the News added.
“I think the arrest numbers I looked at, I just talked about this morning. I think the arrests are right around over 11,000 so far since day one,” Homan told reporters on Thursday.
Excluding Thursday figures and counting from January 20, the 11,000 arrests would average nearly 650 per day. If this rate continues, Trump would be on track to arrest just under 1 million illegal immigrants during the remainder of his term.
However, the president has expressed a goal of deporting as many as 20 times that amount. Fortunately for Trump, the latter half of his first 10 days appears to show an increase in the pace of arrests. Additionally, ICE benefits from a declining number of daily arrests at the southern border, thanks to fewer arrivals, Just the News noted further.
“I mean yesterday, at 24 hours, it was less than 50 border arrests. It wasn’t too long ago we had 11,000 arrests a day under the Biden administration. We got less than 500,” Homan said.
He had previously suggested that arrests and deportations would start off slowly but increase exponentially as the administration set up the infrastructure needed for larger-scale operations. Even within the first two weeks of Trump’s efforts, that trend seems to be taking shape, noted the outlet.
However, Homan is currently facing challenges with capacity issues and leaks that are undermining individual operations. This has been a recurring problem, particularly during the first administration, when then-Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen’s office was plagued with leaks, most notably from Miles Taylor, also known as “anonymous.”
Some insiders appear to be out of sync with the Trump administration’s efforts to deport illegal immigrants. On Thursday, Homan confirmed that ICE’s planned raid on apartment buildings in Aurora, Colo., had been leaked. As a result, ICE agents arrived to find empty apartments and protesters at the location, Just the News reported.
Aurora was in the headlines during the 2024 presidential campaign as Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua occupied multiple apartment complexes in the city.
“We’ve already identified how this operation got leaked. I’ll deal with that today,” he told Fox News. “To have this type of interference puts the officers at great risk.”
He also suggested that the agency would likely restrict media access to its operations to limit ways for information to reach operational targets.
“We’ve invited numerous media outlets along, but right now it’s all about [OPSEC] operational security, so we may have to stop the media ride-alongs because I’m not pointing the finger at [them], but the less people that know about these operations, the safer it is for our agents,” he told reporters. “So we’re looking at that right now.”
