More than 43,000 people were booked into immigration detention in June, the highest monthly total since President Trump returned to office, newly released Immigration and Customs Enforcement data shows.
The uptick follows increased pressure from the White House on ICE to increase arrests, with agents being instructed to target 2,000 arrests per day; June's arrest total averages 1,438 arrests per day, and data for the first 11 days of July averages 1,593 arrests per day, while a DHS spokesperson said ICE does not have arrest quotas.
ICE arrests have continued without the large-scale, highly publicized operations previously carried out in Minneapolis, Chicago, Los Angeles and other cities; monthly arrest totals declined after the Minnesota crackdown, Operation Metro Surge, wound down in February, but have since rebounded.
Two men were fatally shot by ICE officers during vehicle stops in Texas and Maine this month, prompting new scrutiny of enforcement tactics; in the aftermath ICE agents were ordered to immediately pause on most vehicle stops, and President Trump posted to Truth Social reversing the order, calling vehicle stops one of the agency's "most important and effective Crime Fighting tools." Border czar Tom Homan said on Fox News on Monday, "ICE isn't leaving the streets at all," and he told reporters after the interview, "Numbers were down for a few months because the department was shut down," referring to a congressional standoff earlier this year over Homeland Security funding. Homan also said in an interview on July 15, "The president made it clear this morning: He wants ICE out there doing their job, and that's what's gonna happen."
An average of about 59,400 people were held in ICE detention in June, up from 58,200 in May, and data from the first 11 days of July shows an average of more than 65,600 people in detention.
Both victims in the Texas and Maine shootings were not the original targets of ICE operations; DHS calls such arrests "collateral" arrests, and those detained in collateral arrests often lack criminal charges or convictions. Since the deportation crackdown began, changes in the detained population have largely been driven by shifts in the number of people without criminal records being detained: last year those without criminal records were the fastest-growing group, and as the detention population declined in the first five months of this year the non-criminal population fell by 36%, compared with decreases of 3% among those with criminal convictions and 7% among those with pending criminal charges. From May to June the non-criminal population rose 3% while those with criminal records rose 1%; data for the first 11 days of July shows the average non-criminal detained population increasing by 20% from June, from nearly 22,000 to just over 26,000, and those with criminal convictions and pending criminal charges each increased by 5% over the same timeframe. The July 11 data shows that 29% had criminal convictions and 31% had pending criminal charges.
Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin indicated at his confirmation hearing that his goal was to shift to an enforcement strategy that would keep the agency out of daily news headlines, and speaking to reporters on Friday he reiterated that goal and defended the agency's enforcement efforts, boasting that arrests are "hitting single-day records every single day." Mullin said, "I've turned down the temperature of the stove to try to get it correct without boiling over," and added, "When I say turn down the temperature, I turn down the temperature with you guys. We're turning up the heat on the streets. We're out there working harder than we ever have because we've empowered our law enforcement to do their job."