U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested 49,571 people in July, marking the highest monthly total recorded during President Donald Trump’s second term.
The July figure was 15 percent higher than the 43,021 arrests recorded in June and 70 percent above the 29,241 arrests reported in February, according to data provided to the University of California, Berkeley’s Deportation Data Project and analyzed by The Associated Press.
The surge comes after immigration arrests had slowed earlier this year in the aftermath of two fatal shootings in Minnesota. The deadly incidents prompted protests against ICE’s enforcement tactics and ultimately led to the removal of Kristi Noem as Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary.
Arrests began to fall in the following month and remained stagnant until June, when the numbers began to surge again.
Mark Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates for tighter immigration restrictions, said the administration had not stopped its enforcement campaign but had changed how it was carried out.
“They changed the tactics and are, if anything, being more effective,” Krikorian said.
ICE agents have increasingly made arrests during traffic stops and relied on the collaboration between state and local law enforcement agencies with federal authorities through so-called 287(g) agreements, an ICE program that allows officers to interrogate immigrants in their custody and detain them for potential deportation.
The Trump administration has also significantly expanded ICE's funding resources. Congress provided the agency with billions of dollars in additional funding, while ICE has hired approximately 12,000 new deportation officers and investigative agents.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin had pledged during his confirmation hearing to keep ICE out of the headlines, raising expectations that the administration would adopt a less conspicuous approach to immigration enforcement.
Immigrant advocates have argued that Trump’s aggressive crackdown on illegal immigration wrongfully targets people without due process, claiming that even those with valid work permits or pending asylum claims have been detained or deported.