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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested approximately 10,000 people over a five-day period at the end of June, according to data obtained by a person familiar with the figures, marking one of the most aggressive phases yet in President Donald Trump’s renewed campaign to increase deportations.
The arrests, which occurred between Friday and Tuesday, average roughly 2,000 people per day — a pace that far exceeds previously reported enforcement levels during Trump’s second term. The figures were provided by a source who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the data has not been publicly released.
The surge comes as the Trump administration has quietly shifted away from highly publicized immigration raids in major U.S. cities in favor of broader nationwide enforcement aimed at meeting the president’s mass deportation goals.
The arrest totals suggest immigration enforcement continues to intensify even as federal officials have reduced the media-heavy operations that characterized the early months of Trump’s second term.
The Department of Homeland Security defended the increase in enforcement activity.
“Since Day One, DHS law enforcement has been delivering on President Trump’s promise to the American people to arrest and deport criminal illegal aliens including murderers, rapists, pedophiles, gang members, and terrorists,” the department said in a statement. “Our message is clear: if you come to our country illegally, we will find you, we will arrest you, and we will deport you.”
The five-day arrest total was first reported by The New York Times.
The enforcement push coincides with growing detention numbers nationwide. According to information obtained by The Associated Press, the population inside ICE detention facilities climbed to roughly 39,000 people in June after remaining near 30,000 since February.
ICE does not routinely publish comprehensive arrest statistics, making direct month-to-month comparisons difficult. However, data previously obtained by the Deportation Data Project at the University of California, Berkeley through Freedom of Information Act litigation provides context for the recent increase.
That data showed ICE averaged approximately 1,283 arrests per day in December — previously the highest monthly average during Trump’s current term. In January, when federal immigration officers carried out large-scale operations in Minneapolis and surrounding communities, daily arrests averaged about 1,212 nationwide.
By February, the daily average had fallen to approximately 1,057 arrests, according to the project’s data, which currently extends only through that month.
The administration’s enforcement strategy changed significantly following operations in Minneapolis, where two American citizens were killed during protests surrounding immigration enforcement actions. The incident prompted federal officials to reduce the large-scale deployment of immigration officers and reconsider the highly visible tactics used during the tenure of former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
Those earlier operations, often overseen by former Border Patrol Chief Gregory Bovino, frequently resulted in confrontations between immigration officers and protesters. Video of those encounters was regularly highlighted by the Department of Homeland Security on social media.
After Noem left office, her successor, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, indicated the department would adopt a lower-profile approach to immigration enforcement while continuing to pursue Trump’s immigration priorities.
Rather than concentrating resources on headline-grabbing raids in individual cities, the administration appears to have shifted toward sustained nationwide enforcement efforts designed to increase overall arrest numbers without attracting the same level of public attention.
The latest figures suggest that strategy has substantially increased immigration arrests while reducing the visibility of individual operations.
The Trump administration has made immigration enforcement a central focus of its second term, arguing that stricter enforcement is necessary to remove individuals who entered the country illegally and strengthen border security. Immigration advocates, however, have continued to criticize the expanded arrests, raising concerns about due process, detention capacity and the broader humanitarian impact of large-scale deportation efforts.
It remains unclear where the 10,000 arrests took place or how many involved individuals with criminal convictions versus those arrested solely for immigration violations.
