ICE arrests surge to nearly 50,000 in July

Immigration arrests climbed to nearly 50,000 in July, the highest monthly total of President Donald Trump’s second term, as federal authorities expanded quieter enforcement tactics across airports, courthouses, traffic stops and immigration appointments.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement recorded 49,571 arrests last month, according to newly released government data provided to the Deportation Data Project, based at U.C. Berkeley and UCLA. The total was 15% higher than June’s previous record of 43,021 arrests and averaged 1,599 apprehensions a day, NPR reported. The Guardian, analyzing the same data, said the administration also removed nearly 34,000 people from the United States in July, or about 1,100 removals daily, the highest removal total since the start of Trump’s second term.

The numbers reflect a shift in how the Department of Homeland Security is carrying out immigration enforcement under Secretary Markwayne Mullin. NPR reported that Mullin, who took over in March, moved away from the more confrontational style of his predecessor, Kristi Noem, who often accompanied ICE officers on high-profile raids. NPR said those included Operation Metro Surge in Minneapolis, which left two American citizens dead at the hands of federal agents. Mullin has pledged to meet the administration’s deportation goals while keeping the department out of the headlines.

“What we’re seeing is an expansion in all of the different ways that ICE is detaining people,” Graeme Blair, co-director of the Deportation Data Project, told NPR. “They’re arresting people at airports, at ICE check-ins, at immigration courthouses and this is the result of that.”

Immigration attorneys and advocates described a similar pattern. “The way that people are being detained is far less flashy, but we are still continuing to see arrests,” Melissa Shepard, director of legal services at the southern California-based immigrant services group ImmDef, told The Guardian. “It’s just on a quieter scale instead of, you know, 10, 12 officers making one arrest, you have a handful of officers pulling someone over.”

The Guardian reported that July was the first month of Trump’s second term in which a majority of arrestees — 51% — had no criminal convictions or charges, despite the administration’s insistence that it is targeting criminals.

The surge has been supported by billions in congressional funding for immigration enforcement and a hiring spree of thousands of ICE officers, NPR reported. The Guardian described the funding increase as $70 billion and said DHS has been trying to reach the White House goal of 2,000 arrests per day.

More than half of July’s arrests came from Texas, Florida, California and Georgia, according to NPR. Texas, Florida and Georgia participate in the federal 287(g) program, which allows state and local law enforcement officers to carry out certain federal immigration duties under ICE oversight. Florida leads the nation in local law enforcement agencies with such agreements; as of last year, all 67 counties had signed cooperation agreements with ICE, according to the Florida Sheriffs Association cited by NPR.

Mullin called 287(g) “the greatest partnership we can have” and said it was central to conducting enforcement in a “more quiet way,” The Guardian reported.

The latest figures also include the initial wave of arrests of Haitian immigrants whose Temporary Protected Status was revoked in July, Blair told NPR. The Guardian reported that attorneys are advising clients with Temporary Protected Status to seek other forms of immigration relief after the Supreme Court cleared the way for the administration to strip the designation from 50,000 Haitians and 6,100 Syrians. TPS for Salvadorans is set to expire in September, ending protections for 170,000 people.

In the Springfield, Ohio, area, where many Haitians with TPS had settled, advocacy groups said Haitians were being called into ICE offices and fitted with ankle monitors, The Guardian reported. The first deportation flight to Haiti since the Supreme Court decision landed last week.

“I am anticipating and a little afraid for what it’s going to look like with the end of TPS,” Shepard told The Guardian. “I think we are at the precipice.”