How did ICE and DHS policies under Trump affect annual removal numbers?
Executive summary
Trump administration DHS and ICE policies coincide with a large, rapid rise in arrests and removals: ICE reports about 234,211 removals after Trump assumed office in FY2025 alone and TRAC counts a combined reported total of roughly 290,603 removals for FY2025–FY2026 as of their posting [1]. Independent datasets and press reporting show ICE arrest activity in 2025 spiked to roughly 1,100 arrests per day in recent weeks and about 220,000 arrests from Jan. 20 to Oct. 15 — with nearly 75,000 of those arrested having no criminal record [2] [3].
1. Policy shift: a broader enforcement mandate that raised arrest targets
The Trump White House and DHS issued executive orders and directives that expanded interior enforcement authorities and authorized DHS to deputize state and local partners, rescind protections for “sensitive locations,” and reopen categories previously deprioritized, creating both legal and organizational cover for mass interior operations [4] [5] [6]. DHS and ICE publicly cast these moves as restoring “integrity” and securing the border, and DHS messaging credits the administration with historic enforcement funding and operational changes to increase removals [7] [8].
2. Numbers: removals and arrests rose — but how much depends on the data source
ICE and TRAC statistics show large removal totals after Trump took office: TRAC reports 234,211 removals after Trump assumed office in FY2025 and a combined total of about 290,603 across FY2025–FY2026 postings [1]. Independent analyses and reporting paint a similar picture on arrests: the Deportation Data Project’s FOIA data show roughly 220,000 ICE arrests between Jan. 20 and Oct. 15, 2025, and recent government figures released to media show averages near 1,100 arrests per day in recent weeks [3] [2]. Different actors (DHS spokespeople, TRAC, advocacy groups) still dispute absolute daily averages and cumulative comparisons to the Biden era [2] [9].
3. Who was targeted: criminal records versus broader sweeps
Multiple investigations and datasets indicate a substantial share of those arrested lacked criminal convictions. UC Berkeley’s Deportation Data Project found nearly 75,000 of roughly 220,000 ICE arrests had no criminal history in the first nine months of Trump’s second term [3] [10]. News outlets and advocacy organizations say DHS policy changes encouraged “collateral arrests” — detaining people who are present with named targets or encountered at workplaces, courthouses, schools or churches after rescission of Biden-era safe‑location guidance [2] [5].
4. Tactics and capacity: task forces, deputization and interagency detailing
Reporting documents a deliberate operational playbook: an expansion of 287(g) task-force agreements, deputization of local officers, and the use of other federal components and National Guard assets to boost arrests and removals — tactics that concentrated enforcement in particular counties and cities and amplified national totals [11] [12]. ICE purges of regional leadership and redeployments from Border Patrol into ICE roles also changed institutional capacity and behavior [12].
5. Legal and political friction: courts, cities and critics push back
Federal judges and many local officials challenged the new detention/removal posture. Over 220 judges had rejected aspects of the administration’s mass‑detention approach by late November, and litigation has followed arrests and sanctuary‑policy reversals [13]. Critics argue the administration is pursuing politically motivated quotas and sweeping noncriminal populations; DHS and the administration frame the strategy as law‑enforcement restoration and border security [2] [7].
6. Data caveats and competing interpretations
Comparisons to Biden-era daily averages are contested: TRAC’s granular accounting finds Trump-era removals “one percent below” Biden’s daily removal average in some intervals while other DHS statements claim much higher daily averages [9] [2]. ICE’s semi-monthly public postings combine fiscal windows and sometimes mix administrations’ figures, complicating direct apples‑to‑apples comparisons; ICE also halted broader public data releases after January, according to reporting [2] [9]. Available sources do not mention unseen internal metrics or full cross‑agency breakdowns beyond these datasets.
7. Bottom line: policy change drove higher activity and a different enforcement mix
The available reporting and datasets show that DHS and ICE policy choices — expanded mandates, deputization, rescission of protections for sensitive locations, and concentrated task‑force tactics — produced rapid increases in ICE operations and removals in 2025, with a notable rise in arrests of people without criminal records [4] [5] [3] [2] [1]. Sources diverge on precise day‑to‑day comparatives versus prior administrations and on how many removals are attributable to interior versus border enforcement, so conclusions about relative historical records depend on which dataset or agency statement one privileges [9] [2].
Limitations: this summary relies solely on the provided sources and on publicly reported ICE/DHS and independent datasets cited above; additional internal DHS records and later FOIA releases could change totals or attribution [1] [9].