Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the federal agency charged with handling much of President Trump’s immigration crackdown, said it arrested 7,400 people in nine days, significantly increasing enforcement. Details of those arrests have been scarce, leaving it unclear whether the criminals being targeted make up a significant share of those being captured. ICE and the White House highlighted a few dozen cases, posting criminal histories and photos of arrested immigrants to social media. For the remaining thousands of cases, no information has been made available. Officials declined to share details on where most arrests took place, how many people had criminal backgrounds, or how many were ultimately detained or released. They declined to say whether people who were not targeted were also swept up in the enforcement efforts.
The New York Times contacted all 25 of the ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations field offices, seeking information about the arrests, but officials either did not respond or declined to share details. Most of the available information about immigrant arrests has come from social media posts by ICE and other federal agencies. They published details of 59 cases as of Thursday. The White House X account posted details of 21 additional cases. The most commonly mentioned offenses were immigration violations, assaults, crimes involving children, and drug and weapons charges. Some of the people arrested were said to have been convicted of a crime, either in the U.S. or in their home countries. Others were said to have been charged with a crime or suspected of criminal activity. Increased ICE activity has been documented nationwide, with local news media reporting dozens of arrests in Chicago and New York and smaller numbers in other cities. The widespread images and video footage of the new enforcement operations have struck fear in immigrant communities. Jason Houser, the ICE chief of staff during the Biden presidency, said he thought that in order to reach a figure on the order of 1,000 daily arrests, hundreds of nonviolent offenders were likely being apprehended and filling detention space in ICE facilities that are already near capacity.