WASHINGTON – US federal immigration officials have detained more than 10,000 people in the last five days, a major surge that has stemmed from a push within Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to increase arrest rates.
Agency leaders in recent days ordered top ICE officials to focus more of their officers’ efforts on picking up immigrants they want to deport, according to documents obtained by The New York Times and interviews with federal officials.
ICE officers have arrested people at check-ins, with immigration authorities, during traffic stops and on the street.
The push has apparently yielded results, with recent arrest numbers roughly doubling from the 1,000 picked up each day earlier in 2026.
ICE officials were told that the White House wanted an increase in arrests, according to three officials with knowledge of the conversations. One of the officials said that it was unclear how long the pace could continue, but that ICE officials had been told that 2,000 arrests a day was the new standard for enforcement.
The surge has occurred without the fanfare of highly visible operations in 2025.
Markwayne Mullin, the new homeland security secretary, had pledged to mount a quieter enforcement campaign following the chaos of a month-long operation in Minnesota, where federal officers killed two US citizens.
“Our message is clear: If you come to our country illegally, we will find you, we will arrest you and we will deport you,” said Lauren Bis, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson.
Word of an uptick in arrests has started to trickle out, sowing fear in immigrant communities and among advocates already on edge after the Supreme Court ruled that Trump could end deportation protections for people from disaster- and war-torn countries under the Temporary Protected Status programme.
In recent days, ICE officers have launched an intense push to ramp up arrests.
Arrests topped out on June 28 when authorities detained over 2,400 people, according to documents obtained by The New York Times. The detention population inside ICE facilities has jumped nearly 4,000, to more than 63,000 in the agency’s custody as of June 30, according to internal documents.
Top ICE officials were told to make sure that as many officers as possible were working seven days a week, and to put 80 per cent of their officers on arrest operations, according to two US officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity. NY TIMES
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.