ICE arrests 10,000 in five days as Trump deportation drive intensifies

Washington,UPDATED: Jul 3, 2026 04:10 IST

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested 10,000 people over a five-day period at the end of June, in a major push tied to President Donald Trump's mass deportation agenda, according to figures obtained from a person familiar with the data. The information has not been publicly released.

The figures suggest that even as the administration has moved away from high-profile arrest sweeps in major American cities, arrests have continued and are rising. The development also comes as the number of people held in ICE detention facilities rose in June to about 39,000, after remaining around 30,000 a month since February, according to information obtained by The Associated Press.

The five-day period ran from Friday to Tuesday, averaging about 2,000 arrests a day. It was not clear where the arrests took place. The spike was first reported by The New York Times.

In a statement, the Department of Homeland Security said, "Since Day One, DHS law enforcement has been delivering on President Trump's promise to the American people to arrest and deport criminal illegal aliens including murderers, rapists, pedophiles, gang members, and terrorists. Our message is clear: if you come to our country illegally, we will find you, we will arrest you, and we will deport you."

ICE does not publicly release arrest data, which makes exact comparisons with earlier periods difficult. But data provided to UC Berkeley's Deportation Data Project and analysed by The Associated Press showed that 2,000 arrests a day would be a sharp rise from previous periods. December recorded the highest number of ICE arrests since the start of the Trump administration, but even then the average was 1,283 arrests a day nationwide. In January, when the administration deployed hundreds of immigration enforcement officers to Minneapolis and nearby areas, arrests averaged about 1,212 a day across the country.

Minneapolis later became a turning point in the administration's mass deportation drive after two American citizens were killed by immigration officers while protesting the crackdown there. Border Czar Tom Homan then began reducing the number of officers in Minnesota, as the agency moved away from the high-visibility surge operations seen during the tenure of then Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. Operations under Noem, led by former Border Patrol Chief Gregory Bovino, were marked by frequent clashes between immigration officers and protesters, with footage often shared on the department's social media channels.

According to information from the Deportation Data Project, immigration arrests fell in February to 1,057 a day. The project obtained the ICE arrest data through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, though its figures are current only through February. After Noem was fired, her successor at Homeland Security, Markwayne Mullin, indicated that he would take a lower-profile approach to immigration enforcement and wanted to keep the department out of the headlines, while still following Trump's immigration priorities.

The latest figures show a sharp increase in ICE arrests at the end of June, alongside a rise in detention numbers, even as the administration appears to have shifted from public crackdowns in individual cities to a quieter enforcement strategy.

With PTI Inputs

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