Deportations On The Rise, But They Still Lag President Trump’s Target Of 3,000 Per Day
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Federal immigration officials accelerated President Trump’s mass deportation plans in May, but the pace remains lower than what the president and some of his closest allies want.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is now averaging 1,600 arrests a day, up from 656 earlier this year, ICE’s Acting Director Todd Lyons said Sunday. Trump adviser Stephen Miller set a goal of 3,000 arrests a day. He reportedly “eviscerated” ICE officials in late May for low deportation numbers.
TRACKING THE NUMBERS
The 190 deportation flights in May were the most in any month since September 2021. Since then, the number of flights has increased, suggesting that deportation numbers will rise in June.
According to public flight data collected by immigration advocate Tom Cartwright, ICE averaged about 850 deportations per day in the first two weeks of May.
ICE data from April, the latest available, shows over 17,200 people were deported that month, a nearly 30% increase compared to the same month last year.
It was the first time since Trump took office that ICE deported more people than under the Biden administration during the same period the year before.
With border crossings low, agents have struggled to match Biden-era deportation levels — a sticking point among Trump officials. Arrests by ICE officials are up, however.
THE STRATEGY
Some Trump officials favor targeting criminals; others want any undocumented immigrants arrested — which would be needed to reach the targets.
The federal government has been most successful in arresting undocumented immigrants in states (see map above) where local law enforcement agencies have been most cooperative in rounding up immigrants through deals known as 287 (g) agreements. Those states include Texas, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia.
More than 600 agreements are in place across the country, with nearly half in Florida alone, followed by 14% in Texas and 5% in Georgia.
On Monday, ICE’s Boston Field Office reported its largest-ever enforcement action, arresting 1,461 individuals across Massachusetts in May — more than half of whom who were described by ICE as having “significant criminality.”
Pushback: One of those arrested was an 18-year-old high school student who has no criminal background and was on his way to volleyball practice. He has been in the U.S. since age 5. Authorities were reportedly looking for his father. The state’s Democratic governor took to social media Sunday to demand answers from ICE.
An ICE operation in San Diego is also facing local pushback. Protesters confronted masked, armed ICE agents on Friday during an operation in which agents detained and arrested four people during raids at two restaurants.
Bottom line: As the Trump administration seeks to increase its deportation numbers, it will inevitably be targeting people who are deeply ingrained in U.S. communities — and scenes like the one in San Diego may become more frequent.
