Aug. 26 (UPI) — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested nearly 50,000 people in July, an average of more than 1,500 people a day, according to newly released government data.
This sets a new monthly record for ICE in President Donald Trump’s second term. ICE provided the information to the Deportation Data Project based at UC Berkeley and UCLA.
“The way people are being detained is far less flashy, but we are continuing to see arrests,” Melissa Shepard, director of legal services at immigrant services group ImmDef, told The Guardian. “It’s just on a quieter scale instead of, you know, 10, 12 officers making one arrest, you have a handful of officers pulling someone over.”
Markwayne Mullin took over as secretary of U.S. Homeland Security in March, succeeding Kristi Noem, and said he would fulfill Trump’s deportation goals without constant headlines.
“What we’re seeing is an expansion in all of the different ways that ICE is detaining people,” Graeme Blair, co-director of the Deportation Data Projection, told NPR. “They’re arresting people at airports, at ICE check-ins, at immigration courthouses, and this is the result of that.”
The 49,571 people detained in July mark the highest total since October 2022. A record number of those arrested had no criminal history, making up 51% of detainees, The Guardian said.
The number of those removed from the United States also hit a record high in July — nearly 34,000 people.
More than half the arrests were in Texas, Florida, Georgia and California. The prior three states take part in the 287(g) program, in which state and local police can do parts of ICE’s job in the field under ICE supervision. California and a number of other states, including New York, Maine and Vermont, ban 287(g) agreements.
Congress recently approved a $70 billion surge in funding for the Department of Homeland Security, including ICE, helping fuel these numbers. The figures also include the first arrests made after the Supreme Court allowed Trump to revoke Temporary Protected Status for Haitian immigrants last month.
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