Fact check: ICE Confirms Biden Admin Cooked the Books on Illegal Alien Arrests

1. Summary of the results

The claim about "cooking the books" requires important context and nuance. ICE acting Director Todd Lyons has indeed alleged that the Biden administration's counting methodology was flawed, specifically by counting processed and released immigrants as "arrests" ^[1]. The data shows significant discrepancies in reporting:

• ICE recorded approximately 113,431 arrests in fiscal 2024, but the majority were "pass-through" arrests without actual enforcement action ^[2]
• There was an increase to 20,000 arrests in February 2025 compared to under 10,000 monthly arrests in 2024 under Biden ^[3]
• However, daily ICE arrests actually dropped 4.7% in early February 2025 compared to FY 2024 averages ^[4]

2. Missing context/alternative viewpoints

Several important contextual elements are worth noting:

• ICE's data tracking system regularly shows fluctuations until being "locked" at fiscal year end ^[5], suggesting that preliminary numbers should be interpreted cautiously
• Independent verification of ICE data exists through academic institutions like the University of Washington Center for Human Rights, which analyzes enforcement data through FOIA requests ^[6]
• The Department of Homeland Security's claim of a 600% increase has been identified as misleading, as it compared total ICE arrests to only a subset of Biden-era arrests ^[3]

3. Potential misinformation/bias in the original statement

The original statement's framing presents several concerns:

• It uses emotionally charged language ("cooked the books") without acknowledging the complexity of how arrest statistics are recorded and verified
• Multiple stakeholders benefit from different narratives:

The current administration benefits from showing higher arrest numbers to demonstrate enforcement

Opposition politicians benefit from challenging the counting methodology to question administrative competence

• Law enforcement agencies benefit from showing increased activity to justify budgets and resources
• The statement fails to acknowledge that there are established systems for data verification and independent analysis ^[6], suggesting a more complex reality than simple manipulation of numbers