WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥� U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement , the highest single monthly arrest total during the second Trump administration, according to new figures.
The spike in immigration arrests shows that the administration has continued to advance its mass deportations agenda despite a shift in approach earlier this year from in large American cities that sparked a public outcry to arrests that have garnered less attention but have nonetheless been disruptive.
The July arrest tally of 49,571 marks a 15% jump from 43,021 arrests a month earlier and a 70% increase from 29,241 in February, in the aftermath of the Trump administration鈥檚 enforcement surge in Minnesota, according to government data that was provided by ICE to the University of California, Berkeley鈥檚 Deportation Data Project and analyzed by The Associated Press.
Immigration arrests the month before Trump entered office hovered a little over 8,000 a figure largely made up of immigrants transferred from city or state jails and prisons and turned over to ICE to remove from the country. During Trump鈥檚 first year in office the numbers started climbing as on where and who ICE could arrest while it also infused the agency with billions of dollars.
By December, the number of arrests jumped to more than 40,177, according to the data, which was obtained through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.
In the aftermath of two fatal shootings in Minnesota in January that sparked protests and an uproar from Democratic lawmakers, arrests began to fall to nearly 30,000 in February. After remaining stagnant for months, the numbers of people arrested and then to roughly 49,500 in July.
In his confirmation hearing earlier this year, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin pledged to keep ICE out of the headlines, suggesting that the administration鈥檚 immigration crackdown might take a softer approach. But his tenure has been marred by a number of fatal shootings of immigrants officers. And the figures show Mullin hasn鈥檛 shifted the agency from President Donald Trump鈥檚 vision for mass deportations.
Texas and Florida accounted for nearly 20,000 of the July arrests, in a sign of how important those states have become to the Trump administration鈥檚 mass deportation agenda. Both states have leaned heavily into cooperation agreements that allow local and state law enforcement to essentially operate as arms of federal immigration enforcement.
The spike in arrests comes as the agency, infused with billions of dollars last summer by Congress, and investigative agents.
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