ICE detained 10,000 migrants in Trump's first two weeks

Jason Kao and Alicia A. Caldwell, Bloomberg News on Feb 18, 2025

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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained about 10,000 people in the first two weeks of the Trump administration, according to federal data, underscoring the White House’s early efforts to ramp up deportations.

The new detentions represent almost a tripling from the average two-week period during former President Joe Biden’s final year in office, according to an analysis of data from ICE.

The wave of detentions is part of President Donald Trump’s broader effort to carry out what he has described as the largest deportation campaign in American history. Still, it’s not yet clear whether the new administration will be able to keep arrest numbers at higher levels after initially trumpeting its crackdown with media crews in tow and help from television personality Phil McGraw, better known as Dr. Phil.

His administration has said it’s prioritizing removing people with criminal records, though the data show that about 14% of those detained between Jan. 25 and Feb. 8 had no criminal record, beyond immigration violations. During Biden’s last year, that share was lower — about 7% of detainees hadn’t been convicted or accused of crimes.

The data is broken out into two-week increments, so it’s hard to discern the number of arrests per day. ICE stopped publishing daily figures at the start of February.

Even as book-ins increased, ICE released about 10,400 people from immigration jails — a daily average of 740 releases, which is about the same level as under the Biden administration.

To carry out mass deportations, the administration has expanded enforcement beyond traditional immigration officers. Thousands of military personnel have been deployed to the border, military aircraft have been authorized for deportation flights, and agents from the Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service have been deputized to bolster the ranks of ICE.

ICE, the Department of Homeland Security agency in charge of arresting and deporting immigrants living in the country without permission, has set a goal of at least 1,000 arrests per day, according to a person familiar with the discussions.

But the push has not gone entirely as planned. Some ICE operations have been leaked in advance, drawing public scrutiny and disrupting efforts. Internally, officials have expressed frustration that the proportion of criminal arrests has been lower than expected, according to the person, who asked not to be identified discussing private information.

Last week, ICE’s two top deportation officials were removed from their posts, the Department of Homeland Security confirmed, a sign of internal tensions as the administration expands its immigration crackdown.

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