Where can I find official ICE or DHS datasets and press releases detailing 2023–2025 arrest figures?
Executive summary
For official ICE/DHS arrest figures and contemporaneous press statements from 2023–2025, the authoritative statistical releases are the DHS Office of Homeland Security Statistics (OHSS) monthly tables and KHSM products and ICE’s own statistics pages and biweekly detention-management releases; OHSS’s immigration enforcement monthly tables and ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) statistics are explicitly built from ICE administrative records and cover arrests, book‑ins, detentions and removals [1] [2] [3]. DHS and ICE also publish frequent press releases and operation announcements that cite or interpret those counts — see DHS news/press pages and the “Making America Safe Again” and component press lists on DHS.gov and ICE’s newsroom [4] [5] [6].
1. Where the raw, authoritative datasets live — OHSS and ICE statistics
DHS’s Office of Homeland Security Statistics (OHSS) publishes “Immigration Enforcement and Legal Processes Monthly Tables” that include encounters, arrests, book‑ins/book‑outs, detention counts and removals; OHSS says these tables are constructed from DHS components’ operational reports and its Persist Dataset — the statistical system of record built from agency operations data, including ICE’s Enforcement Integrated Database (EID) [1] [3]. ICE’s public statistics page also posts Arrests, Removals, Detention and Alternatives to Detention statistics, with ICE noting data may fluctuate until the fiscal year is “locked” [2].
2. Near‑real‑time operational feeds and biweekly detention snapshots
Journalists and researchers have been relying on ICE’s biweekly detention-management releases and the ICE “Initial Book‑Ins by Arresting Agency and Month” tables that ICE publishes during the fiscal year; The Guardian and other outlets note ICE releases detention and arrest snapshots every two weeks and that reporters have archived those successive releases to build time series [7]. ICE warns published quarterly/year‑end files may supersede earlier snapshots [2].
3. FOIA‑derived consolidated datasets used by researchers (Deportation Data Project, Vera, TRAC)
Large, usable files have also been produced through FOIA and made public by third parties: the Deportation Data Project hosts raw ICE enforcement files (including arrests, detainer requests and detentions) through mid‑October 2025 and offers downloadable ZIP archives used by newsrooms and academics [8]. Vera Institute’s ICE Detention Trends dashboard and datasets draw from the Deportation Data Project records to provide day‑by‑day detention history through June 10, 2025 [9]. TRAC and other independent trackers similarly assemble and analyze ICE administrative data [10].
4. Where to find DHS/ICE press releases that interpret or announce arrest tallies
DHS centralizes news and press releases on DHS.gov (press and “All News” pages) where department‑level operations, claims about enforcement numbers, and named local “operations” are posted [4] [11]. DHS also curates themed press pages (for example, the “Making America Safe Again” press list) and ICE and DHS component pages publish frequent operation announcements that often repeat arrest and criminality statistics (p2_s6; [13]–p4_s4).
5. How journalists and researchers reconcile differences — caveats and common pitfalls
Sources note several limits: ICE’s arrest counts in some tables reflect only individuals who entered ICE detention (so arrests that did not lead to book‑ins can be undercounted) and ICE/ OHSS datasets may be revised when the fiscal year is “locked” [7] [2]. Independent projects that re‑release FOIA records (Deportation Data Project) and derivative dashboards (Vera) document how ICE’s internal record structure and changes over time can create discontinuities that analysts must account for [8] [9].
6. Quick road‑map to download and track 2023–2025 figures
Start at DHS OHSS’s monthly immigration enforcement tables (the Persist/KHSM outputs) for standardized monthly counts constructed from ICE records [1] [12]. Use ICE.gov’s statistics and biweekly detention releases for the current fiscal year’s arrest/book‑in tables [2] [7]. For raw, item‑level FOIA exports and historic EID extracts, download the Deportation Data Project archive and consult Vera’s Detention Trends for cleaned, day‑level custody histories [8] [9].
7. Competing narratives and what to watch for in press releases
DHS/ICE press releases emphasize arrests of “criminal illegal aliens” and often frame large operation totals as evidence of targeting the “worst of the worst” — a messaging line repeated across operation announcements [13] [6] [14]. Independent analyses and newsrooms using FOIA data report that large shares of recent arrestees had no criminal convictions and that operational arrest counts can be driven by interior administrative arrests and policy priorities [15] [16]. Readers must compare numerical tables (OHSS/ICE raw counts) with press framing to separate data from messaging [1] [2].
Limitations: this briefing relies only on the documents and sites indexed above; available sources do not mention any other specific DHS/ICE archival endpoints beyond OHSS, ICE.gov statistics, the Deportation Data Project, Vera, TRAC and component newsrooms [1] [2] [8] [9] [10] [4].