The Trump administration has directed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to dramatically escalate the number of arrests they are making to 1,200 to 1,500 per day, up from hundreds.
The Washington Post, citing four officials aware of the briefings, reported the hardline crackdown order was issued because President Donald Trump is unhappy with the initial rollout of his mass deportation campaign.
Top ICE officials were given the marching orders on a call Saturday, and were told each of the agency’s field offices should be making 75 arrests every day and expect accountability measures if they fall short.
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White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told the Post that its story was “false” but did not respond when asked for details, according to the report.
A day later, on Sunday, the administration launched a nationwide immigration enforcement blitz, arresting nearly 1,000 people as agents from multiple Justice Department agencies joined ICE agents.
That represents a massive increase from the last fiscal year, when ICE’s 113,431 total administrative arrests averaged out to roughly 310 arrests per day, according to agency data.
The heightened crackdowns have already drawn concerns that officers are making indiscriminate arrests in areas where ICE raids are being carried out, including Chicago, the Atlanta metro area, Colorado, Los Angeles, and Texas.
Last week, a U.S. military veteran was arrested by ICE officers in New Jersey, prompting outrage from local officials.
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, whose state’s largest city has been the target of attacks from Trump border czar Tom Homan, said in a CNN interview Sunday that he is fine with deporting violent criminals, but doubts that’s who the Trump administration’s increasingly indiscriminate crackdowns are targeting.
“They’re going after people who are law-abiding, who are holding down jobs, who have families here, who may have been here for a decade or two decades,” Pritzker told the network.
Homan, also speaking to CNN, hailed Sunday’s raids as a “gamechanger” but denied issuing any quotas for border officials.
He also told ABC News Sunday that the Trump administration is only “in the beginning stages” of rolling out its mass deportation plan and—while it is currently focused on apprehending people deemed threats to public safety or national security—“as that aperture opens, there’ll be more arrests nationwide.”
ICE reported to Congress last year that there are roughly 670,000 immigrants with criminal convictions or facing criminal charges among its 7.8 million caseload.
In another measure taken by the Trump administration last week, Acting Homeland Security Secretary Benjamine Huffman revoked a Biden-era directive that barred ICE agents from making arrests at churches, hospitals and schools.
