U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement reported arresting 50,925 illegal immigrants in August, setting a new all-time monthly record.
That tops the previous high set in July, when ICE nabbed 50,208, and if ICE kept up that pace over a full year it would mean 600,000 arrests.
Perhaps just as important as the total is how ICE did it. There were no headline-dominating surges into neighborhoods, and no massive anti-ICE protests drawing TV news cameras or serving as a catalyst for resistance.
“The hard-working men and women of DHS continue to break records as they defend the homeland and protect the American people,” Secretary Markwayne Mullin said in announcing the new records. “This is promises made and promises kept in action.”
The pace is still below the White House’s goal of a million arrests a year, but it trounces the rate under President Biden, who in fiscal 2024 saw 113,431 arrests by ICE’s deportation force, officially known as Enforcement and Removal Operations.
Just 33,242 of those 2024 arrests were conducted at-large, meaning cases where ICE officers went into communities. The others were cases where ICE took custody of someone already being held by another agency.
The Trump administration has expanded both sides of that ledger.
It has signed up hundreds of police and sheriff’s agencies to cooperate in turning over illegal immigrants, and it has also deployed its personnel into communities to track down migrants who are defying deportation.
The result has been a wider range of people getting arrested.
Mr. Mullin didn’t reveal numbers for August, but ICE data provided to the Deportation Data Project for July showed that less than 50% of those arrested had criminal convictions or pending criminal charges.
Mr. Trump’s opponents said that undercuts his claim that he’s getting the “worst of the worst” out of the country.
DHS did point to some of those arrested in August, including Osbert Marion Otien Owuor, a Kenyan man with a murder conviction on his record, who was picked up in California, and Masroor Ahmed Butt, an Indian citizen nabbed in the District of Columbia, who had convictions for child pornography and intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct.
ICE’s arrests don’t always lead to deportation, but a rise in overall arrests generally tracks with a rise in total removals.
Mr. Mullin had promised more action on arrests and deportations without the headline-grabbing botches the department saw under Kristi Noem, his predecessor.
She oversaw major incursions into Minneapolis, Chicago and Los Angeles, which sparked protests and riots and led to myriad court cases challenging DHS’s heavy-handed tactics against its opponents.
Kieran Doyle, an analyst at Armed Conflict Location & Event Data, wrote in a piece last week that Mr. Mullin has achieved his goal.
“Even as ICE arrests broke record numbers, pro-immigration demonstrations declined to their lowest levels since early 2025,” he said.
He said there are still deadly encounters between ICE and migrants, but they haven’t produced the “same degree of uproar” as the deaths of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis in January.
Contact the author
Please read our comment policy before commenting.