▶ Watch Video: ICE detentions hit Trump-era high in July, data shows
Detentions by Immigration and Customs Enforcement set a monthly record high for the second Trump administration in July, internal agency data obtained by CBS News shows, as ICE widened its crackdown, making arrests at airports, immigration check-in offices and communities across the U.S.
Last month, ICE took into custody more than 46,000 individuals facing deportation because of alleged immigration violations, like entering the U.S. illegally or overstaying their visas, according to preliminary Department of Homeland Security figures.
The statistics, which have not yet been publicly disclosed by the federal government, show that a summer enforcement surge by ICE continued to intensify in July, as the agency faced pressure from the White House to record 2,000 arrests across the country each day. An average of 1,500 detainees entered ICE custody each day last month, the data indicates, though some of them were first arrested by Customs and Border Protection agents.
The over 46,000 book-ins in July surpassed the roughly 43,000 detentions recorded by ICE in June, at the time the highest tally during President Trump’s second term. As of this weekend, ICE was holding 68,000 detainees in its sprawling detention system, approaching a record high of over 70,000 detainees set in January, according to internal agency figures.
The numbers also show the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration has rebounded this summer, following a significant drop in arrests earlier this year after federal agents killed two American citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, during an enforcement blitz in Minneapolis that garnered bipartisan criticism.
While the Trump administration has largely stopped the large-scale, sweeping immigration operations it conducted in several Democratic-led cities last year, ICE has managed to more quietly boost arrest levels in recent weeks, including through a crackdown at airports and traffic stops, and the deployment of newly hired agents across the country.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin replaced Kristi Noem this spring with the stated goal of keeping ICE out of the headlines, while simultaneously furthering Mr. Trump’s promise of overseeing the largest deportation operation in American history.
But the latest phase of the crackdown has reignited the country’s debate over ICE and its tactics. Last month, ICE officers in Texas and Maine, respectively, killed two immigrants, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo and Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, during attempted traffic stops, triggering local and national outcry.
The fatal shootings prompted ICE to pause most vehicle stops, but the moratorium was short-lived, with Mr. Trump intervening and overturning the pause just 24 hours later. Investigations into both killings continue at the federal and local levels.
Instances of ICE agents in plainclothes arresting people near gates and check-in counters at airports throughout the country have also sparked controversy in recent weeks, prompting angry bystanders to film the arrests, some of which have gone viral online. The arrests have been made possible by increased collaboration between ICE and the Transportation Security Administration, which has been providing agents information on noncitizen travelers, including those whose status has lapsed.
The Trump administration has additionally broadened the population eligible to be arrested and processed for deportation, mostly recently terminating the Temporary Protected Status of more than 300,000 Haitian migrants. According to officials and advocates, some Haitian migrants in Ohio have begun receiving notices to report to local ICE offices, sparking fears in communities like Springfield.
The Department of Homeland Security told CBS News in a statement: “In President Trump’s first year back in office, more than 3 million illegal aliens have left the U.S. because of the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration including an estimated 2.2 million self-deportations. As of July 12, we have now deported over 985,000 illegal aliens and arrested over 1 million illegal aliens.”
“We’re turning up the heat on the streets,” Mullin said in a press conference last month. “We’re out there working harder than we’ve ever had because we’ve empowered our law enforcement to do their job.”
Theresa Cardinal Brown, an immigration official at DHS during the Obama and Bush administrations, said one main difference in ICE’s strategy since Noem was pushed aside is how operations are advertised. Under the “previous leadership,” she said, “there was an intent to make the enforcement public, to do it publicly, to be seen doing it.”
Now, Cardinal Brown noted, ICE is dramatically expanding enforcement without the same “in-your-face” approach as before.
But she said it’s clear “the administration never gave up on its goal of mass deportations.”