Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested 10,000 people over a five-day stretch at the end of June, a sharp acceleration that nearly doubled the agency's previous daily arrest record and pushed ICE detention populations to their highest levels of the Trump presidency. The figures, first confirmed by the Associated Press through data obtained by UC Berkeley's Deportation Data Project, amount to roughly 2,000 arrests per day, a pace that dwarfs every prior month of the administration's enforcement drive.
The numbers tell a story the administration's critics would rather not hear. After months of legal challenges, protests, and political resistance from blue-state officials, ICE is not slowing down. It is speeding up.
And it is doing so more quietly than before, which may be the most significant shift of all.
To understand what 2,000 arrests per day means, compare it to the administration's own benchmarks. Data from the Deportation Data Project, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against ICE, shows that December marked the previous high-water mark, with an average of 1,283 arrests per day. January, the month the administration launched a massive surge into Minneapolis, averaged about 1,212. By February, the daily rate had fallen to 1,057.
Then came June. ICE's detention population, which had hovered around 30,000 per month since February, climbed to roughly 39,000. And in one five-day window, Friday through Tuesday at month's end, agents brought in 10,000 people.
The spike was first reported by The New York Times. ICE does not publicly release arrest data, and the figures came from a person familiar with the information who spoke anonymously to discuss data that had not been officially released. The locations of the arrests remain unknown; the AP noted it was not clear where they had taken place.
The surge arrives after a deliberate strategic pivot inside the Department of Homeland Security. The early months of the Trump deportation campaign were defined by visibility, large-scale operations in major cities, confrontations between ICE officers and protesters, and footage splashed across DHS social media channels. The January Minneapolis operation, which deployed hundreds of federal officers to the city and surrounding regions, became the most prominent example.
That operation also became a turning point. Two American citizens were reported killed by immigration officers during protests against the crackdown, an episode that drew intense scrutiny. Border Czar Tom Homan subsequently drew down officer numbers in Minnesota, and the agency stepped back from what the AP described as "flashy surge operations."
The leadership shakeup that followed reinforced the shift. Kristi Noem was fired as Homeland Security Secretary. Operations under Noem, headed by former Border Patrol Chief Gregory Bovino, had been marked by frequent clashes between enforcement officers and protesters. Her successor, former Senator Markwayne Mullin, signaled he would take a more low-profile approach, maintaining the president's immigration priorities while aiming to keep the department out of the headlines.
The late-June numbers suggest that lower visibility has not meant lower output. If anything, the opposite is true. The administration appears to have found a way to sustain, and dramatically increase, enforcement activity without the political friction that accompanied the Minneapolis-style operations.
The Department of Homeland Security offered no apologies for the numbers. In a statement, DHS 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."
DHS Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis provided additional detail to Fox News, stating that nearly 70 percent of ICE arrests involve illegal immigrants charged with or convicted of a crime in the United States. Bis also noted that more than 3 million illegal immigrants have left the country since the administration took office.
That 70 percent figure is worth pausing on. Critics of the administration's enforcement posture have long warned of indiscriminate sweeps targeting otherwise law-abiding people. If the DHS figure holds, it suggests the agency is prioritizing criminal aliens, precisely the population that even some moderate voices concede should face removal.
The enforcement surge has also been fueled by individual high-profile arrests, including gang members tied to organizations like MS-13 and Tren de Aragua.
The five-day arrest spike coincides with a separate but related milestone. DHS announced that ICE has arrested more than 10,000 migrant gang members since the start of Trump's second term, the New York Post reported. The 10,000th arrest was identified as Javier Hernandez Rosas, an alleged MS-13 member from Mexico with a criminal record that includes cocaine possession and arrests for abduction and weapon possession.
Homeland Security Secretary Mullin framed the milestone bluntly: "Many of these gang members were released into our country by Joe Biden. These vicious criminals murdered, assaulted, robbed, and terrorized innocent Americans for sport." Mullin added that the newly passed Secure America Act has "turbocharged" ICE's ability to arrest gang members and criminals.
Nearly 900,000 illegal immigrants have been deported from U.S. soil since Trump's inauguration on January 20, 2025, DHS told the Post.
The scale of the enforcement campaign has required a corresponding investment of resources. Congress passed a Republican-backed spending package giving ICE $75 billion over four years, including funds to detain at least 100,000 migrants at any given time, Newsmax reported. The White House has set an internal target of approximately 3,000 arrests per day, ten times the daily rate under the Biden administration.
ICE's average daily arrests soared over 250 percent in June compared to a year earlier. Homan told Newsmax that morale among agents is strong: "I think morale is good. I think morale will get even better as we bring more resources on." A senior DHS official added that ICE personnel "are excited to be able to do their jobs again" after operating under limits during the Biden years.
The operational tempo has not come without strain. The Newsmax report detailed internal challenges as ICE works to meet unprecedented enforcement demands. But the trajectory is clear: the administration is spending the money, hiring the personnel, and pushing the pace.
Separately, the administration's enforcement posture has extended well beyond street-level arrests. ICE has pursued illegal immigrants who embedded themselves in American institutions, including one case involving an individual who allegedly fabricated an asylum claim and then obtained employment as a jail officer in Indiana.
The Minneapolis operation earlier this year remains the most politically charged chapter of the deportation campaign. The administration deployed hundreds of officers to the city and surrounding areas, provoking fierce resistance from local officials. Former DHS Secretary Noem publicly accused Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey of refusing to protect their own residents.
Noem announced at the time that over 10,000 illegal immigrants had been arrested in Minnesota, with approximately 3,000 of those arrests occurring in just six weeks, Just the News reported. She also alleged "massive fraud" in Minnesota's federal benefits programs, claiming at least $19 billion in losses.
The Minneapolis experience shaped the administration's subsequent approach. The confrontational model generated headlines, but it also generated political liabilities. The reported deaths of two American citizens during protests forced a recalibration. The agency pulled back from the high-visibility posture, but it did not pull back from enforcement itself.
The legal landscape has also shifted in the administration's favor. A federal appeals court recently rebuked a district judge who had pursued a contempt probe over Trump deportation flights, removing one of the more prominent judicial obstacles to the removal campaign.
For all the available data, significant gaps persist. The locations of the late-June arrests have not been disclosed. The immigration status breakdown of those arrested, how many had criminal records, how many had pending cases, how many had no prior enforcement contact, remains unclear beyond the DHS claim that nearly 70 percent had criminal charges or convictions.
The Deportation Data Project's FOIA-obtained data runs only through February, leaving a four-month window with no independently verified arrest figures. ICE's continued refusal to publicly release its own data means the public relies on anonymous sources, FOIA litigation, and administration statements to piece together the picture.
That opacity cuts both ways. It allows critics to question the numbers. But it also means the full scope of the enforcement campaign may be larger than what has been publicly confirmed.
The administration has also continued to pursue enforcement actions with national security dimensions, including arrests of individuals with alleged ties to foreign regimes.
The late-June surge represents the most concentrated period of immigration enforcement in the Trump presidency to date. The administration moved from an average of roughly 1,000 to 1,300 arrests per day in its early months to 2,000 per day in five days, and it did so with less public drama than the Minneapolis operation that defined the campaign's opening chapter.
Detention populations are up 30 percent. Gang arrests have crossed 10,000. Deportations approach 900,000. Congress has written a $75 billion check. And the agency's own personnel say they feel empowered in a way they did not under the previous administration.
Coordinated enforcement operations have also targeted fraud schemes that helped illegal immigrants obtain licenses and embed in American workplaces, broadening the campaign beyond border-focused removal.
For years, Americans were told that meaningful interior enforcement was impractical, inhumane, or legally impossible. The numbers coming out of June suggest otherwise. The question was never whether it could be done. It was whether anyone in charge was willing to do it.
