Trump Administration On Track To Double Biden's Migrant Arrests, But Still Falls Behind Its Target: Report

The Trump administration has arrested more than 20,000 migrants living in the U.S. unlawfully during the first month of the president back in office and as his efforts to curb unauthorized migrant crossings ramp up. The figure, which is set to double the Biden administration number, is far from what the Republican president had promised.

According to new Department of Homeland Security data, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested more than 20,000 unauthorized migrants across the country. With that figure, arrests are on pace to more than double the 113,000 arrests ICE made under President Joe Biden in fiscal year 2024.

It remains unclear the exact breakdown of all 20,000 detainees. But Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for DHS, told The Wall Street Journal that of those arrested, 22 were known suspected terrorists and 640 were suspected gang members.

ICE initially provided daily arrest numbers with a breakdown of how many being deported had committed crimes, but stopped after the first few days. According to the posts, on the highest day of arrests that ICE disclosed, roughly half of those picked up by immigration officers had a criminal background.

Although the Trump administration is poised to surpass the Biden administration's efforts, the current figure falls behind what the president had envisioned in what he deemed would be the largest deportation operation in American history.

In fact, a source familiar with Trump's thinking told NBC News that the president is getting "angry" that more people are not being deported and that the message is being passed along to border czar Tom Homan, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller and acting ICE Director Caleb Vitello.

"It's driving him nuts, they're not deporting more people," the source told NBC in early-February.

Another source said Homan is "unhappy" and has "made his unhappiness known" about the relatively low numbers of arrests and deportations.

Due to these frustrations, Trump officials directed ICE agents to ramp up the number of people they arrested on a daily basis, from a few hundred per day to at least 1,200 to 1,500. ICE officials were also told that each of the agency's field offices should make 75 arrests per day and managers would be held accountable for missing those targets.

To carry out these quotas and Trump's overarching mass deportation agenda, immigration officers have used aggressive tactics, including going to schools and dressing in plainclothes while making arrests, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Their targets have also been unusual, according to the Journal's investigation, such as lawyers, activists and migrant families. Administration officials have described arrests of non-criminals as "collaterals," but in many cases, immigration officers have also been racially profiling and specifically asking for migrants who don't have criminal backgrounds or orders for removal, immigration lawyers said.