ICE Arrests More Than 20,000 Illegal Immigrants in Past Month: Homeland Security

At the southern border, Border Patrol arrested 200 illegal immigrants on Feb. 22, the lowest single-day apprehension in more than 15 years.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks in Washington in a file photograph. Manuel Balce Ceneta/Pool/AFP via Getty Images

The number of arrests of illegal immigrants by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the interior of the country has jumped significantly under the Trump administration, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). At the same time, Border Patrol arrests of illegal border crossers have plummeted.

More than 20,000 illegal immigrants were arrested inside the country in the past month, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said in a Feb. 26 statement.

By comparison, there were “just 33,000 at-large arrests under Biden for ALL of last year,” the agency noted.

“Hundreds of thousands of criminals were let into this country illegally. We are sending them home, and they will never be allowed to return,” Noem said.

She said the Trump administration is “saving lives every day because of the actions we are taking to secure the border and deport illegal alien criminals.”

Noem announced in a separate statement that Border Patrol agents apprehended just 200 illegal immigrants at the southern border on Feb. 22; the lowest number of apprehensions in a single day in more than 15 years.

The record low numbers came after Noem launched a nationwide and international ad campaign in mid-February, urging illegal immigrants to either leave the country themselves or face deportation “with the inability to return to the United States.”

“President Trump has a clear message: if you are here illegally, we will find you and deport you. You will never return. But if you leave now, you may have an opportunity to return and enjoy our freedom and live the American Dream,” Noem said at the time.

“If you are a criminal alien considering entering America illegally: Don’t even think about it. If you come here and break our laws, we will hunt you down. Criminals are not welcome in the United States.”

According to the DHS, daily border apprehensions have dropped 94 percent since President Donald Trump assumed office on Jan. 20.

Noem was confirmed by the Senate as DHS secretary on Jan. 25. In her first month, arrests of criminal aliens by ICE doubled, while arrests of fugitives at large tripled.

The administration is also detaining illegal immigrants, including violent criminals, at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The administration said it has returned 176 of those illegal immigrants back to Venezuela, including members of the Tren de Aragua transnational gang.

Tackling Illegal Immigration

Under the Trump administration, agencies across the board are ramping up their crackdown on illegal immigration.

This week, Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins took action to prevent illegal immigrants from receiving food stamps.

She asked the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Food and Nutrition Service to ensure that only U.S. citizens and legal residents benefit from its programs.

“The days in which taxpayer dollars are used to subsidize illegal immigration are over,” Rollins said. “Today’s directive affirms that the U.S. Department of Agriculture will follow the law—full stop.”

On Feb. 25, the DHS said that aliens in the United States who are not already registered with the federal government need to do so or face fines, imprisonment, or both.

The administration’s crackdown on illegal immigrants has met with several challenges.

In mid-February, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit claiming that illegal immigrants detained at Guantanamo Bay naval base were being denied American rights such as the right to legal counsel, the First Amendment right to communicate with the outside world, and the Fifth Amendment right to due process.

“Immigrants held at Guantanamo have effectively disappeared into a black box and cannot contact or communicate with their family or attorneys,” the lawsuit said.

This week, a U.S. District Judge issued an order that blocked the Trump administration from carrying out immigration enforcement operations at certain places of worship. The judgment came as part of a lawsuit filed by five Quaker congregations from Maryland, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.

Meanwhile, Trump has proposed a new pathway to citizenship—Gold Card visas that grant residency for immigrants, with a single visa costing $5 million.

Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said the visa is set to replace the existing EB-5 investor visa offered by the United States.