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ICE more than doubled its daily arrest rate the second Donald Trump was sworn in for his second term, newly released government data reveals.
In the 19 days before Trump’s Jan. 20, 2025 inauguration, the agency was averaging 226 arrests a day. From Jan. 20 to 31—Trump’s first 12 days back in the Oval Office—that jumped to 544.
The numbers are buried in more than 505,000 ICE I-213 forms—the legal documents the agency files in immigration court to prove someone is removable—released to the Guardian after the paper sued the Department of Homeland Security through the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.
The Guardian published the dataset publicly so other newsrooms could dig in.
PunchUp did—and is making this article free so others can do the same. We will publish more stories on this, but we would love to know what you find. Drop us a line on Signal, Threema, or at punchuptom@proton.me with anything you spot.
The figures show that the share of arrestees with no criminal charges also climbed—from 58 percent in the days before the inauguration to 69 percent after. This was despite the president, 79, having promised only to deport “the worst of the worst.”
The numbers also contradict the administration’s insistence that it did not have an arrest quota. Trump’s deputy chief of staff and immigration czar, Stephen Miller, 40, and then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, 54, have since demanded ICE hit at least 3,000 arrests a day.
PunchUp contacted DHS and ICE for comment. White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said: “President Trump campaigned on and won an election based on his promise to deport criminal illegal aliens. The entire Administration is working to carry out the President’s agenda.” A spokesperson for DHS said similar.
The I-213 data has plenty more to say—about who ICE arrested, where, and what it did to their American children. We’ll get to that next week.
Have a great weekend.
