Chicago – March 02, 2025
During the first month of the Trump administration’s crackdown, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement made more arrests. On average, immigration officials are making more arrests every day than they did throughout President Biden’s administration.
However, according to the Department of Homeland Security’s most recent data, ICE arrests have yet to meet the targets set by officials in the Trump administration. The Trump administration initially released regular updates detailing the daily totals of ICE arrests, which reached a height of over 1,000 per day. However, those daily updates ceased in February.
Less than 600 people were booked into ICE detention centres nationwide during the first three weeks of February, according to the most current DHS data released this week. This is far less than the 1,200 to 1,500 arrests per day that administration officials have stated they would like to see.
Despite this, the Trump administration has continued to make some audacious statements. This week, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem reported that in the first month of the government, 20,000 undocumented immigrants had been arrested. That’s still insufficient to meet the White House’s declared quota, but it’s more than ICE had been making on average during the Biden administration.
The comparisons they are making are on false basis and don’t make much sense. The administration needs to do more to meet the numbers they promised previously.
