Immigration arrests averaged about 1,400 per day during the first 12 days of July after ICE detained 39,500 people in June, surpassing its previous monthly high.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is on pace to record its highest monthly arrest total as detention operations accelerate under President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement agenda.
ICE agents averaged approximately 1,400 arrests per day during the first 12 days of July, according to The Washington Post.
If that rate continues through the end of the month, July would become the agency’s busiest month for arrests.
The increase follows a record-setting June, when ICE arrested and sent 39,500 people to detention facilities. That total exceeded the agency’s previous monthly high, which was recorded in December.
Arrests initially declined in February following two fatal shootings involving ICE officers in Minneapolis in January. Enforcement activity has increased every month since that decline.
ICE exceeded 2,000 arrests in a single day several times earlier in July, according to a Department of Homeland Security official who spoke anonymously because the information had not been authorized for public release.
The agency had established 2,000 arrests per day as an operational target.
Trump has said his administration intends to deport 1 million illegal immigrants annually.
ICE arrests have increased by more than 40% this year compared with the same period last year, reflecting the administration’s expanded focus on detention and deportation.
The July pace indicates that enforcement operations have continued intensifying after June’s 39,500 arrests.
At an average of 1,400 arrests per day, ICE would exceed 43,000 arrests over a 31-day month. That would place July above the June total and establish a new monthly record.
The increase has occurred despite the temporary decline in February, when arrests fell after ICE officers fatally shot two people in Minneapolis the previous month.
Since then, the agency has expanded operations steadily, with arrest totals rising in March, April, May, June and the first part of July.
The administration’s goal of 1 million deportations per year would require an average of more than 83,000 removals each month, although not every person arrested by ICE is immediately deported.
Detainees may remain in immigration custody while their cases proceed, pursue legal challenges or await travel arrangements and final removal orders.
The current arrest surge nevertheless represents a major expansion of interior immigration enforcement and places ICE on track for its highest monthly total if the agency maintains its early-July pace.
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