The Trump administration has implemented a quota mandating a minimum of 1,800 daily arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), requiring each of the agency’s 25 offices to detain at least 75 individuals per day, according to multiple sources.
Since Trump’s return to office, ICE has already made over 4,500 arrests, focusing on sanctuary cities such as New York, Denver, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Boston.
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller confirmed the quota during a CNN interview, stating, “The numbers you cited are a floor, not a ceiling. The goal is to arrest at least that many, but hopefully many more.”
The Washington Post reports that ICE officials anticipate making between 1,200 and 1,500 arrests daily nationwide.
An ICE official noted that the agency has a comprehensive list of criminal illegal immigrants, facilitating the effort to meet arrest quotas. As part of the operation, Acting Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem participated in pre-dawn raids alongside ICE, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents.
One such raid in New York led to the arrest of Anderson Zambrano-Pacheco, an alleged Tren de Aragua gang leader, near PS 11, the Highbridge School in The Bronx.
Trump’s Border Czar, Tom Homan, who joined an operation in Chicago over the weekend, emphasized that ICE is prioritizing individuals with criminal records deemed threats to public safety.
“I think the president’s happy, but we’re going to make him a lot happier,” Homan told Fox News. “We’re not gonna let up. We’re gonna put our foot on the gas and we’re gonna go.”