How many arrests of noncitizens were recorded by ICE in 2025 so far?
Executive summary
Available government and media releases document hundreds of thousands of ICE arrests in 2025 through mid‑October — data sets released via the Deportation Data Project cover arrests through Oct. 15, 2025, and major news analyses using that data show ICE making roughly 1,100 arrests per day in recent weeks and tens of thousands of arrests earlier in the year [1] [2] [3]. Exact tallies for “2025 so far” depend on the cut‑off date: ICE/FOIA data used by The New York Times and others cover arrests through Oct. 15, 2025; other organizations and outlets report totals and patterns for FY 2025 and portions of the calendar year [1] [3] [4].
1. What the official data set contains — and its published cut‑off
The most complete machine‑readable record cited in reporting is the data released in response to Freedom of Information Act litigation and posted by the Deportation Data Project; that release includes every ICE arrest and detention entry through Oct. 15, 2025, and is the basis for multiple newsroom analyses [1] [3]. Any headline number about arrests “so far in 2025” that comes from these records implicitly uses that Oct. 15 cut‑off unless the outlet states otherwise [1] [3].
2. Recent media tallies and daily averages reported
Analyses of the Deportation Data Project files and related FOIA material found the pace of arrests rose sharply under the second Trump administration. Axios summarized government records as indicating ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) had been averaging roughly 1,100 arrests per day “in recent weeks,” a figure drawn directly from the released ICE data [2]. The New York Times used the same data to analyze hundreds of thousands of arrests through Oct. 15, 2025 [3].
3. Partial numeric benchmarks reporters provide
Several outlets and research organizations have reported partial benchmarks: one widely‑cited figure in early 2025 stated ICE claimed 32,809 arrests between Jan. 20 and March 10, 2025 — a period that reporters and summaries have used to demonstrate the early‑year surge [5]. Migration Policy Institute and other analyses tie fiscal‑year 2025 enforcement to hundreds of thousands of removals and roughly 60,000 average detainees by year end, contextualizing the level of activity but working on different fiscal timelines [4].
4. Why simple answers are misleading — definitions and double‑counts
Counting “how many arrests” can overstate unique people affected. Deportation Data Project extractors and press accounts note that the data count every arrest event; multiple arrests of the same individual may be recorded separately, and some arrests did not lead to detention [1] [2]. Axios explicitly warns its per‑day figures treat repeat events as separate rows in the FOIA data [2]. Thus an arrest‑event total is not identical to a count of unique noncitizens arrested or people detained.
5. Criminal history, operation style, and contested narratives
Reporting based on the FOIA release finds that in many high‑profile operations more than half of those arrested had no criminal record, and nationwide a smaller share had convictions — a point used by critics to argue ICE is sweeping up noncriminal noncitizens [3] [6]. The government and DHS have pushed back on some media accounts about specifics (for example, contests about individual citizen detentions), but available sources do not provide a single reconciling authority that gives a one‑line definitive number for all of 2025 beyond the FOIA cut‑off [7] [3].
6. What numbers you can reliably cite right now
If you need a defensible, sourceable figure for “ICE arrests in 2025 so far,” cite the Deportation Data Project/FOIA release and specify the Oct. 15, 2025 cut‑off [1] [3]. Reporters using that dataset have described hundreds of thousands of arrest events through that date and used the data to calculate recent daily averages of roughly 1,100 arrests [1] [2] [3]. Exact totals for calendar‑year 2025 after Oct. 15 are not included in those files — later tallies reported by advocacy groups and outlets extend into October and November but rely on different updates and should be described with their own cut‑offs [1] [8].
7. How to get the number you want and the caveats to include
To finalize a single number, pick the dataset and cut‑off you will rely on (for example, “ICE arrest events Jan. 1–Oct. 15, 2025, per Deportation Data Project/FOIA release”), then report that number and note repeat‑arrest and event‑vs‑person distinctions [1] [2]. If you quote daily averages, note Axios’s caveat that the FOIA data count repeat arrests as separate events [2]. Available sources do not provide a single, official end‑of‑year count for all of calendar 2025; any claim beyond Oct. 15 should cite the specific later source and its date [1] [3] [4].
Limitations: my reporting here cites only the provided sources. Available sources do not mention a single official ICE “to‑date” 2025 arrest total for the full calendar year beyond the FOIA‑released files through Oct. 15, 2025 [1] [3].