The acting head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Todd Lyons, is calling out the Biden administration for allegedly misrepresenting migrant arrest figures during its term.
According to Lyons, officials under Biden's leadership counted tens of thousands of cases as "arrests" even when no enforcement action—such as detention or removal—was actually taken.
Instead, he says, many of the individuals were simply processed and released inside the U.S..
"The Biden administration was cooking the books," Lyons said during a press call Wednesday covered by Border Report. He went on to accuse predecessors of "purposely misleading the American people" about the agency's enforcement efforts.
In Fiscal Year 2024 ICE recorded 113,431 arrests, but senior officials at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) now say the majority of these were actually "pass-through" actions—where officers processed new arrivals but did not take further enforcement action.
In reality, 33,242 arrests were actual interior enforcement cases, meaning they involved individuals already living in the U.S., per a DHS official on the call.
The current administration says it has refocused ICE on its core mission of enforcing immigration laws. In just the first 50 days of the Trump presidency, DHS reports that ICE has already made 32,809 arrests—nearly surpassing the total number of at-large arrests from all of Fiscal Year 2024 under Biden.
DHS officials highlighted that nearly 75% of recent ICE arrests involved individuals with criminal backgrounds. As of DHS's most recent data:
- 14,111 arrests (about 43%) were convicted criminals.
- 9,980 arrests (30%) involved people with pending charges.
- 1,155 arrests were suspected gang members, more than double the 483 arrested during the same timeframe last year.
- 39 arrests were known or suspected terrorists, almost triple the number arrested last year.
Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem praised the actions: "We have deported known terrorists, cartel members, and gang members from our country."She added that deportation numbers would continue to rise and encouraged undocumented immigrants to self-deport and apply for legal entry in the future.
The Trump administration, however, has also faced criticism from political observers who argue that top immigration officials selectively present data in a misleading way.
Back in February, The Guardian published a report raising concerns about the transparency of ICE's arrest data. Noelle Smart, a principal research associate at the Vera Institute of Justice, criticized the agency for not providing access to the raw data behind its statistics, making independent verification impossible.
The report also pointed out that ICE has a history of misrepresenting figures. It cited a 2024 U.S. Government Accountability Office review that found the agency undercounted immigration detainees by tens of thousands. Additionally, past reporting has revealed that ICE often exaggerates the number of criminals arrested.
DHS data released earlier this month revealed that ICE arrests are falling short of the White House's targets. While arrests have increased compared to the Biden administration, with 20,000 detentions in the first month, ICE is still far from the 1,200 to 1,500 daily arrest quota set by Trump officials, NPR reported.
Daily ICE arrests peaked at 1,000 per day before dropping off, prompting the administration to abandon its daily arrest updates. The latest DHS data shows that fewer than 600 individuals per day were booked into detention facilities in February—a stark contrast to the administration's ambitious goals.
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