US immigration agents arrested a record number of people in June, data shows | ICE (US Immigration and Customs Enforcement)
The Trump administration detained a record number of immigrants last month, according to newly released government data that reveals how U.S. immigration agents have quietly but steadily stepped up operations across the country.
A Guardian analysis of the latest data released by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) found that federal immigration officers arrested 43,138 people in June; This is the highest figure since Donald Trump took office in January last year and promised a campaign of mass immigrant deportations.
The number of people in custody has also increased by 5,450 since early April, when ICE last provided a count of the detained population. As of July 11, there were a total of 65,765 people in ICE custody; this was slightly below the record 70,770 people detained in January.
As has been the case since last summer, the number of people in ICE custody with no criminal history is higher than the number of people with pending charges or convictions.
Latest figures show the Trump administration has deported more than 590,600 people in total since January 2025.
The new data matches what immigration advocates and attorneys say they are seeing in communities across the United States. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE and border patrol, has been steadily increasing arrests and detentions, backed by a $70 billion funding increase. of the White House reportedly It has forced immigration officials to aim for 2,000 arrests every day.
Communities are once again on high alert for ICE activity after immigration officers killed two people in a week — 52-year-old Lorenzo Salgado Araujo and 26-year-old Joan Sebastián Durán Guerrero — sparking protests against the U.S. immigration enforcement system in cities across the country.
Last year, the Trump administration launched a series of militarized immigration crackdowns in places like Chicago, Los Angeles and Minneapolis, but has recently taken a quieter approach to enforcement. After immigration officers shot and killed two U.S. citizens — Renee Good and Alex Pretti — in Minneapolis, Trump replaced DHS secretary Kristi Noem with Markwayne Mullin, who said he wanted to move away from high-profile operations.
It has become less common for mobile caravans of immigration officers to raid public parks and car parks. Arrests now routinely occur in businesses, outside homes or during traffic stops, according to advocates and legal aid groups. Many immigrants are detained when they arrive at ICE offices for mandatory check-in appointments. Others are stopped by police, sheriffs and members of other states and local law enforcement agencies tasked by the federal government to conduct immigration sweeps.
Immigration advocates have said volunteers who keep watch on ICE vehicles and officers in certain cities and whistle when they see immigration agents have recently had difficulty understanding how and where ICE operates because arrests often occur routinely and quietly.
“This is happening so quickly, so people can’t go there to observe, record and report what they see,” Gracie Willis, an attorney with the National Immigration Project, said in a recent interview. “And often all that’s left is an empty car sitting there.”
Since 2019, Congress has required ICE to release data on arrests, detentions and deportations every two weeks. But until Monday, the agency had not released any updates since early April.
The delay had angered lawmakers across the political spectrum, and numerous media outlets, academics and nonprofits had demanded that the agency provide updates on how many immigrants had been arrested and detained. In a statement to the Guardian, DHS blamed the months-long delay in reporting data on a series of government shutdowns.
