Immigration arrests hit new record, DHS says
By: Ignacio Calderon
and Christopher Cann
USA Today
..... After a three-month delay, the longest in its recent history, the Department of Homeland Security on July 20 [2026] published detention numbers hat show mitigation enforcement activity grew again under Secretary Markwayne Mullin.
.....
The figures show Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests at a record level, with the number of people in detention increasing again, notably reversing, a dip from detainees with no criminal record.
..... The new data showing an uptick in enforcement activity follows backlash over recent fatal shootings, on in Texas and one in Maine, that again thrust the agency into the national spotlight. Earlier in 2026, the agency's high-profile operations in multiple cities led to calls for more accountability and transparency in immigration enforcement and a months-long stalemate over the agency's funding.
..... Ariel Ruiz Soto, a senior policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, said the new numbers point to change in immigration tactics but with similar results as before.
..... "The previous tactics were more visual, were more publicly controversial. They were more targeted in places and cities that were pushing against the Trump administration," Ruiz Soto said. "Now the strategy is less visible .. at least until the recent death, but the outcomes haven't really changed significantly if you look at the bigger picture."
..... Ruiz Soto pointed to the share of people detained without a criminal recored, which has grown the most of any group under the second Trump administration.
..... The new numbers show the average daily number of people booked into detention from ICE arrests reached over 1,300 in June [2026] - a 32% increase since April, [2026] Mullin's first full month.
..... It's also the highest of any month going back to 2021, according to a USA Today compilation of historical files.
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While the increase is significant, the pace of removals has stayed roughly flat, with the total number of people in detention increasing after the reversal that followed the deadly shootings in Minneapolis in January. [2026]
..... A DHS spokesperson said in an email the agency has been delivering on President Donald Trump's promise to arrest and deport people with a criminal record. The spokes peons pointed to most arrests being of people charged or convicted of a crime. The latest data shows detainees from ICE arrests without a criminal record made up 37% of the detained population, compared with the 6% in January 2025.
..... Data published July 20 [2026] marked over 100 days since the last update in April, [2026] pushing the average time between releases so far in 2026 to 42 days, nearly three times the historical schedule. Though 2025, Trump's first year back in office, and the four years before, ICE had been relatively consistent about publishing data roughly every two weeks, following a congressional mandate to do so.
..... DHS typically publishes additional datasets that dive into other aspects of immigration enforcement in more detail, such as arrests and deportations. However. the agency hasn't updated those since the end of 2024, making the detention management data released July 20 [2026] the last accountability tool to track immigration enforcement.