How many illegal immigrant's that have been arrest entered usa under trumps watch

Checked on January 14, 2026
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Executive summary

A definitive single tally of “how many illegal immigrants that have been arrest[ed] entered USA under Trump’s watch” cannot be produced from the available reporting because agencies and statements use different timeframes, counting rules and labels; reported totals range from tens of thousands to well over 150,000 depending on the source cited [1] [2] [3] [4]. The most conservative official ICE figure in these reports is 66,463 arrests in the first 100 days of the second Trump administration [2], while Department of Homeland Security and White House releases cite much larger cumulative numbers for similar periods [3] [5].

1. Headlines and competing tallies

Multiple official and press accounts provide starkly different arrest totals: a DHS/White House release says more than 20,000 arrests in a single month and touts over 158,000 arrests in 100 days [5] [3], ICE’s own early release says 66,463 arrests in the first 100 days [2], a DHS statement counted 32,809 enforcement arrests in the first 50 days [1], and independent outlets such as Reuters reported “more than 100,000” arrests from January 20 through early June [4], while TRAC’s compilation gives a cumulative figure of roughly 76,212 arrests over the period it tracked [6].

2. Why the numbers diverge — definitions and windows

Discrepancies arise because different statements use different definitions (for example “arrests,” “book‑ins,” “at‑large arrests,” or broader counts that include workplace actions), different time windows (first 50 days, first 100 days, through early June), and different aggregations (ICE-only enforcement vs. DHS-wide tallies or White House summaries that fold in multiple partner agencies) — all explicitly shown across the sources [1] [2] [3] [4].

3. ICE’s concrete reporting and the mid‑range estimate

ICE’s own public release is the clearest single-agency figure in the record: 66,463 arrests and 65,682 removals in the first 100 days of the administration [2]. For readers seeking a single authoritative agency count tied to a specific, short time window, that ICE 100‑day number is the most direct official figure available in these sources [2].

4. Larger DHS/White House claims and why they matter

DHS and White House communications have presented larger, sometimes cumulative or extrapolated totals — for example claiming over 158,000 arrests in 100 days or more than 20,000 arrests in a single month — and these releases are framed for political messaging about border enforcement [3] [5]. Those broader claims often fold in multiple programs and partner agencies or use different internal tallies, which explains the gap between ICE’s 66,463 and DHS/White House claims [2] [3].

5. Independent trackers and reporting context

Independent reporters and trackers produce intermediate or variant counts: Reuters cited “more than 100,000” arrests in the first months of the term based on White House and agency statements [4], TRAC’s analysis derived a cumulative arrests figure of roughly 76,212 for the period it tracked [6], and outlets such as the BBC noted daily spikes early on that produced a few thousand arrests in initial days [7]. These sources underscore that aggregation choices materially change headline totals [4] [6] [7].

6. How to answer the original question succinctly

If the question asks how many people were arrested while Trump was president in this second term according to the reporting provided, the best short answer is: reported counts vary widely; ICE reported 66,463 arrests in the first 100 days [2], but DHS/White House statements and some press aggregations report totals from roughly 66,000 up to 158,000+ depending on which agencies and timeframes are included [2] [3] [4]. Any single number must therefore be qualified by the source and the period it covers.

7. Caveats, context and open data questions

None of the supplied sources reconcile methodology differences or provide a single, audited cumulative figure for the period; they also differ in whether they count only “criminal” arrests or all immigration arrests, and whether they include removals, book‑ins or multi‑agency operations — limitations that make a one‑line definitive total impossible from the present reporting [2] [3] [1].

Want to dive deeper?
How does ICE define and report an 'arrest' versus a 'book‑in' and where are those definitions published?
How do DHS/White House arrest totals compare to ICE’s internal statistics when broken down by agency and operation?
What independent datasets (e.g., TRAC, Reuters) say about cumulative immigration arrests during the same period and how do they reconcile differing agency claims?