Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have made just under 150,000 arrests since the start of January, according to ICE data provided to the Washington Examiner this week, measuring arrests through late July – marking a significant uptick over the same period last year.
[RELATED: Self-Deportations Using CBP Home App in Tens-of-Thousands, Breitbart Reports…]
Since the start of January, ICE has arrested 149,084 people, with those numbers appearing to trend upwards. ICE took 50,000 of the arrested illegal immigrants into custody in just the past eight weeks.
From January to April, ICE was arresting an average of 17,000 illegal aliens per month, with that number increasing to 34,962 illegals arrested in June, the last month with full data available. According to the Washington outlet, the department made 19,763 arrests by mid-July, apparently on track to exceed June numbers.
According to David Bier, director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute, who spoke with the outlet, the increase in deportations has come in part in response to White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller demanding that ICE broaden the scope of their arrests. Miller allegedly pushed for ICE to increase their enforcement efforts to include all illegal immigrants, not just those deemed public safety threats.
“The increase in ICE arrests in recent weeks is a direct result of Stephen Miller’s demand that ICE stop focusing on public safety threats and profile people going to work or attending their hearings,” said Bier.
Bier seemingly believes that increased enforcement of federal immigration law is a bad thing.
“These arrests are creating chaos in the streets and explain President Trump’s falling approval rating on immigration,” he said.
ICE is well on its way to exceeding the number of arrests recorded in any single year of President Joe Biden’s time in office.
According to ICE data, the highest number of ICE arrests during a year of President Biden’s Administration came in 2024, with just 170,590 arrests. Notably, arrest numbers do not correspond to deportation statistics. For example, 2024’s removal numbers were 271,484, significantly higher than the number of arrests.
ICE has not yet released official information on the number of removals to-date in 2025.
The highest number of removals in a single year on record came during President Barack Obama’s second term, with 432,334 removals in 2013.
