(José Niño, Headline USA) Immigration and Customs Enforcement broke a months long data blackout this week, and the figures it finally posted reveal an agency arresting people faster than at any point in Donald Trump’s second term.
Immigration researcher Austin Kocher reported on his Substack that ICE held 65,765 people in civil detention as of July 11. That total climbs above the 60,311 held April 4 but stays under the record 70,766 logged January 24. None of it counts people held briefly at the border, inside field offices, in courtrooms, or at other sites where the agency parks detainees.
ICE has spent the summer advertising record arrest totals, and Kocher confirmed the boast holds up. June averaged more than 1,300 arrests a day, the strongest month of this administration. The first 11 days of July pushed that figure to 1,474, a fresh high. He credited part of the jump to new leadership at Homeland Security, where Markwayne Mullin took over from Kristi Noem in late March after federal agents shot and killed two American citizens in Minnesota. Quieter tactics, Kocher wrote, have delivered more arrests while drawing less public fury.
Removal remains the standard exit. Even so, daily deportations slipped once Mullin arrived, averaging 1,246 from early April through early July, a pace Kocher noted still towers over prior years.
The surprise sits in a category ICE started publishing only this year. Court ordered releases numbered 119 last October. By May, they reached 2,017 in a single month and have hovered near that level since, totaling 10,649 since January.
José Niño is the deputy editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/JoseAlNino
