In June of 2026, US immigration officers, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), arrested a record of 43,138 people. The figure represents the highest number of arrests since President Donald Trump took office in January 2025 and an increase of 5,450 people from early April, an almost 15% difference. The increase comes as immigration enforcement operations have expanded across the country.
This three-month gap in data raises concerns about transparency. Since 2019, Congress has required ICE to publish data on arrests, detentions, and deportations every two weeks. However, the agency did not publish updated figures between early April and July. ICE attributed the delay to a series of government shutdowns.
As of July 11, 65,765 immigrants were detained at detention centers across the country, compared with a record of 70,700 people in January. Since Trump was sworn in this term, over 610,000 immigrants have been detained. The latest figures show that people without a criminal history continue to make up a larger share of those detained than people with pending charges or criminal convictions.
A recent increase in funding towards Border Patrol and Customs agencies occurred in June, the same month the arrest record was at its highest. This $70 billion bill passed by the US Senate on June 5th and the House on the 9th surged ICE’s monetary resources, a budget which will extend into 2029, past the current administration.
The expanded funding passed amid sharp disagreement in Congress. Republican lawmakers argued that the funding was necessary to support ICE and Border Patrol, while Democratic lawmakers raised concerns about the administration’s immigration enforcement tactics. Those concerns included the federal response in Minneapolis, where ICE officers fatally shot US citizens Renée Nicole Good and Alex Pretti in January.
Pretti’s passing transpired during Minneapolis protests opposing Good’s killing and the treatment of immigrants in the community. ICE agents targeting vulnerable populations in a city grieving for one of their residents points to concerns of violations against citizens’ First Amendment rights to protest.
Following the Minneapolis operations, the administration began shifting away from the highly visible raids that had characterized some of its earlier immigration operations. After Kristi Noem was replaced as secretary of Homeland Security by Markwayne Mullin in March 2026, immigration enforcement increasingly moved toward smaller, more targeted operations. These include targeted attacks at hospitals, schools, outside homes, during traffic stops, and at mandatory immigration check-in appointments.
The administration has also set ambitious arrest targets. In May 2025, the Trump administration reportedly stated a quota goal of 3,000 immigration arrests per day.
The scale of immigration enforcement is also raising concerns about the treatment of people during arrest and detention. The ACLU documented more than 1,200 immigration enforcement incidents. This violence includes killing citizens and immigrants, causing bodily harm which could result in death, and destroying property all while masked and many times in front of young children.
The record number of arrests reflects a broader expansion of immigration enforcement. The expansion raises questions about the state of American democracy and the checks and balances intended to protect individual rights. These protections cannot depend on a person’s immigration status.