In a striking display of the Trump administration's commitment to immigration enforcement, deportation officers executed nearly 1,000 arrests across the nation on Sunday.
This marked the highest number of single-day arrests only six days into the Trump administration, significantly surpassing the average daily apprehension rate under the Biden administration.
As reported by the Daily Caller, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents made 956 arrests, a figure that already outstrips the Biden administration's average of approximately 310 daily arrests in fiscal year 2024, as per data previously released by ICE.
The arrests made since President Donald Trump's return to office include a wide range of criminal migrants, such as individuals linked to foreign gangs like Tren de Aragua, a suspected terrorist, and individuals convicted of sex crimes against children. The White House highlighted the arrest of a convicted child rapist, a man with suspected ties to ISIS, and an MS-13 gang member wanted for murder on Sunday.
In a bold move, ICE also launched a large-scale targeted operation in Chicago, a sanctuary city whose political leaders have been vocal in their opposition to the Trump administrations immigration enforcement agenda. The agency, in collaboration with federal partners including the FBI, ATF, DEA, CBP, and the U.S. Marshals Service, began conducting enhanced targeted operations in Chicago to enforce U.S. immigration law and ensure public safety and national security.
The 956 arrests made on Sunday are in addition to the approximately 1,300 ICE arrests announced by border czar Tom Homan on Thursday. This brings the administrations total immigration apprehensions for the week well over the 2,000 mark.
In addition to ramping up immigration arrests, the Trump White House is also orchestrating a more robust deportation operation. President Trump signed an executive order declaring a national emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border, enabling him to mobilize more resources to address the immigration crisis that began under the previous administration. Following this order, the White House has moved to deploy troops to the southern border and the Department of Defense has engaged military aircraft to aid deportation operations.
The Trump administration has also abolished so-called sensitive locations, public areas like schools or hospitals where deportation officers were previously prohibited from conducting enforcement activities. The White House has expanded expedited removal, a policy that allows immigration enforcement officials to quickly remove illegal migrants from the U.S. by bypassing the immigration court process, from 100 miles within an international border to anywhere within the country.
The Trump administration has also shown less tolerance for recalcitrant countries, foreign governments that refuse to accept their deported citizens back from the U.S. When the president of Colombia initially refused to accept deportation flights over the weekend, alleging mistreatment of his citizens, Trump swiftly responded with threats of steep tariffs against all imported Colombian goods. Under pressure, Colombian President Gustavo Petro immediately capitulated, with his office not only declaring that his government would accept the deportees, but also offered his presidential plane to facilitate their return.
Despite the increase in ICE apprehensions and deportations, these rates remain small compared to the level of illegal immigration experienced during the height of the border crisis under the Biden administration. Customs and Border Protection data reveals an average of roughly 5,600 daily encounters with Border Patrol along the U.S.-Mexico border during fiscal year 2023. This underscores the magnitude of the challenge that the Trump administration faces in its efforts to secure the nation's borders and uphold the rule of law.
Login