Skip to main content

ICE arrests 10,000 illegally in US in 5-day span

By WTOP Staff
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents patrol Dulles International Airport on March 24, 2026 in Dulles, Virginia. (Heather Diehl/Getty Images)

(WASHINGTON) — Immigration officials have quietly ramped up arrests in the recent days, taking 10,000 people who they say are illegally in the United States into custody within a five-day space, sources familiar with the figures said Thursday.

The source said the significant number of arrests have occurred around the United States since last week.

The new goal for immigration authorities is to arrest at least 2,000 per day going forward, according to sources. Last year, in a meeting with senior Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, White House and senior Department of Homeland Security officials urged a goal of 3,000 arrests per day, a source familiar told ABC News.

“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,” a DHS spokesperson said in a statement.

During the immigration crackdown, President Donald Trump has pledged to target the “worst of the worst” criminal offenders among the nation’s migrants. While the criminal histories of those arrested in this latest sweep is not yet clear, the DHS spokesperson said that “nearly 70% of ICE arrests are of illegal aliens charged or convicted of a crime in the U.S.”

The recent arrests have been carried out with little publicity, according to sources, after DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin pledged during his confirmation hearing earlier this year to keep the agency out of the headlines and do the work quietly. That is in contrast to former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, who wanted maximum publicity for ICE enforcement.

ICE has a new pick to lead the agency, Lance Schroyer, a top Mullin ally and former Oklahoma state trooper who has no federal immigration experience. 

The New York Times first reported the details.

Mike Howell, who serves as the president of the Trump-aligned Oversight Project and a leader of the Mass Deportation Coalition, applauded the arrests numbers, but said there should “transparency and meaningful metrics on deportation-related statistics,” which are not publicly available.

“There have been so many numbers thrown around in press releases, estimates, extrapolations, and puffery that most people are just kind of immune to it and waiting to see the hard data that’s being withheld,” Howell said.

Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

US heat forecast: See where Americans face the greatest risk from extreme heat this week

By CNN
(CNN) — Extreme heat is a growing threat across the US each summer, but the risk isn’t the same everywhere. Exceptionally high temperatures — and hot nights — affect public health, causing spikes in emergency room visits and hundreds of heat-related deaths each summer.🔥 Get your heat forecast in the CNN Weather appAs temperatures rise, CNN is tracking extreme heat conditions and the potential risk for Americans each day.To help prepare Americans for the dangerous temperatures, the National Weather Service and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has a national forecast predicting heat-related risks.It considers the severity and unusualness of forecast heat and its potential duration, while also factoring the likely impact on residents in specific locations based on CDC data for past effects, such as deaths.The National Weather Service also produces multi-day apparent temperature forecasts, which take into account other factors such as wind and humidity to help explain what it “feels like” outside.This map, updated each morning, shows that forecast across the contiguous US for the next three days:CNN also uses this national forecast map to derive “feels like” temperature predictions in more than 800 US cities with a population greater than 50,000 residents. Search it here:As the planet warms, heat waves are now more common, intense and long-lasting, and temperatures are warming even faster overnight — not cooling down enough to offer relief.As those temperatures rise, heat records will also fall.The weather service each day releases a forecast for potential record-breaking temperatures, by location, across the country. Here are places where high temperature records could be broken over the next three days, with more than a dozen record highs forecast to fall this weekend.Forecasters from the National Weather Service also try to predict average temperatures across regions of the country over the coming weeks. This map shows the chance that areas of the continental United States will be above, below or near normal average temperatures.Darker shades represent areas where the average temperature has an increased chance of being warmer or cooler than usual. Gray areas are expected to be near normal.Predictions often hold true, breaking daily high temperature records. This map highlights locations across the continental United States where temperatures exceeded calendar day records, according to the Southeastern Regional Climate Center.The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
Read Next Story

Related Stories

Latest News
Justice Department attempts to distance Attorney General Todd Blanche from Comey’s ‘8647’ seashell threat indictment
2 minutes ago

Justice Department attempts to distance Attorney General Todd Blanche from Comey’s ‘8647’ seashell threat indictment

Takeaways from Tuesday primaries: Trump endorsement only goes so far

In brief: Olivia Colman joins 'Only Murders in the Building,' and more

Scoreboard roundup -- 8/18/26

US-South Korea military drills to end early after Trump order, Seoul says