What were the total ICE arrests by fiscal year for 2023, 2024, and 2025?
Executive summary
ICE’s publicly reported total arrests for fiscal year 2024 are repeatedly cited around 277,686 (ICE’s publication and news summaries) and for ICE ERO administrative arrests in FY2024 around 113,430 (ERO-only administrative arrests) — sources split reporting by arrest type and agency, producing different totals [1] [2] [3]. Available sources do not provide a single, undisputed public total labeled “ICE arrests” for FY2023 or FY2025 that is directly comparable to the FY2024 figures without reconciling differences in definitions and which ICE component (ERO vs. HSI vs. CBP encounters) is included (not found in current reporting).
1. A tangle of definitions: why one number won’t do
Journalistic and government sources show multiple ways to count “ICE arrests”: Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) administrative arrests, criminal arrests, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) criminal arrests, and cross‑agency counts that include Border Patrol/CBP encounters. Newsweek and other outlets present a broad FY2024 total of roughly 277,686 arrests drawn from ICE data, while ICE’s ERO materials and watchdog summaries break out 113,430 administrative ERO arrests for FY2024 — two different totals because they count different event types and arresting components [1] [2] [3].
2. The commonly cited FY2024 totals and their sources
Multiple outlets and data projects cite a high FY2024 aggregate based on ICE’s published tallies compiled visually by Newsweek and others; that larger figure appears to include multiple ICE components and border‑origin encounters [1]. Separately, ICE’s FY2024 reporting and related analyses note 113,430 administrative arrests by ERO, and about 3,032 ERO criminal arrests plus tens of thousands of HSI criminal arrests — showing how subcomponents sum to larger aggregates depending on inclusion choices [2] [3] [4].
3. What the record shows for FY2023 — partial but consistent signals
Reporting and data projects (Deportation Data Project, TRAC) archive arrest and booking series through October 2023 and show that FY2023 totals are lower than the headline FY2024 aggregate used by some outlets; however, provided sources do not deliver a single definitive FY2023 “ICE total arrests” figure that matches the FY2024 aggregate without careful reconciliation of methodology and included agencies [5] [6]. Available sources do not mention a single reconciled national arrest total for FY2023 comparable to the FY2024 277,686 figure (not found in current reporting).
4. FY2025: surge claims, but numbers depend on reporting cadence
Coverage from 2025 shows a sharp increase in ICE activity and many daily reporting tallies; outlets cite large book‑in totals for portions of FY2025 (for example, book‑ins and arrests reported in 2025 releases), yet the sources provided do not supply a single authoritative FY2025 fiscal‑year sum equivalent to the FY2024 aggregates quoted earlier. Some pieces report cumulative book‑ins into mid‑2025 (e.g., hundreds of thousands of book‑ins since Oct. 1, 2024), but those are reporting‑period aggregates that may overlap with FY2024 accounting and use differing inclusion criteria [7] [8]. Available sources do not present one reconciled FY2025 “total ICE arrests” number (not found in current reporting).
5. Watchdogs, government releases, and why totals diverge
Government press releases and ICE dashboards publish biweekly and quarterly figures that can be aggregated — but watchdogs (GAO, TRAC, Deportation Data Project) have flagged ICE’s reporting choices (what constitutes an “arrest” vs. a CBP encounter, exclusions of some bookings, and carryover data in initial releases), producing diverging annual totals unless the user specifies the arrest definition or components to include [9] [6] [5].
6. How to get a defensible answer (recommended approach)
To produce a single comparable FY‑by‑FY series, specify: (a) include only ICE ERO arrests vs. include HSI criminal arrests and CBP transfers; (b) count only arrests that led to ICE detention/book‑ins (ICE often reports only book‑ins); and (c) use a single source (ICE dashboard, TRAC, or Deportation Data Project) and document the methodology. The ICE ERO annual report supplies the ERO administrative number for FY2024 but broader aggregated figures (e.g., 277,686) come from different compilations of ICE’s public tallies [3] [1].
Limitations and competing viewpoints: my synthesis relies only on the documents you supplied; those sources themselves disagree on definitions and scope. Some government releases and DHS statements emphasize that the majority of arrests are of people with criminal convictions (a DHS framing), while independent analysts and news outlets highlight that many arrested had no convictions — both claims appear in the provided reporting and reflect different emphases and dataset slices [10] [1] [7].
If you want a clear table for FY2023–FY2025, tell me which definition you prefer (ERO administrative arrests only; all ICE components including HSI; or arrests resulting in ICE book‑ins), and I will extract the matching numbers from these sources and document each line with citations [3] [1] [5].