The Trump administration has instructed officials from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to substantially increase the daily arrests they conduct, raising the target to between 1,200 and 1,500, a significant jump from previous figures in the hundreds.
The Washington Post, referencing four officials knowledgeable about the briefings, indicated that this stringent enforcement directive was implemented due to President Donald Trump’s dissatisfaction with how his mass deportation initiative was initially unfolding.
High-ranking ICE officials received this directive during a phone call on Saturday, where it was communicated that each of the agency’s regional offices is expected to carry out 75 arrests daily, with accountability enforced for those who do not meet this benchmark.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt informed the Post that the report was “false” but did not provide further information when inquiries were made, as per the article.
On the following day, Sunday, the administration initiated a comprehensive immigration enforcement operation, resulting in the arrest of nearly 1,000 individuals as agents from various Justice Department branches collaborated with ICE personnel.
This marks a significant increase compared to the last fiscal year, during which ICE recorded a total of 113,431 administrative arrests, averaging about 310 arrests daily according to agency statistics.
The intensified enforcement actions have already raised alarms regarding officers executing indiscriminate arrests in locations where ICE operations are underway, including Chicago, the Atlanta metro area, Colorado, Los Angeles, and Texas.
Last week, ICE apprehended a U.S. military veteran in New Jersey, which incited outrage among local leaders.
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, whose state’s major city has faced criticism from Trump’s border chief Tom Homan, expressed in a CNN interview on Sunday that he supports deporting violent offenders but questions whether the targets of the Trump administration’s broader crackdowns fit that description.
“They’re going after individuals who are law-abiding, maintaining jobs, raising families here, some of whom may have lived here for ten or twenty years,” Pritzker articulated to the network.
Homan, also speaking to CNN, praised Sunday’s raids as a “gamechanger” while denying that any quotas for border enforcement personnel had been established.
He further informed ABC News on Sunday that the Trump administration is merely “in the beginning stages” of implementing its mass deportation strategy and—while currently aiming to apprehend those considered public safety or national security threats—“as that focus broadens, more arrests will occur nationwide.”
ICE reported to Congress the previous year that approximately 670,000 immigrants within its 7.8 million caseload have criminal records or are facing criminal charges.
In another action taken by the Trump administration last week, Acting Homeland Security Secretary Benjamine Huffman rescinded a directive from the Biden administration that prohibited ICE agents from making arrests in churches, hospitals, and educational institutions.
