Number of ICE Detainees Surged 65% in 2025

After his return to the White House in January 2025, President Donald Trump launched an aggressive anti-immigration campaign that saw the number of arrests, detentions and removals conducted by U.S. immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers skyrocket, often under questionable circumstances. For the better part of the past 12 months, masked ICE officers are roaming the country, spreading fear among immigrants, regardless of their legal status.

According to official data published by the agency, the number of people detained by ICE surged 65 percent in 2025 to an all-time high of around 70,000 by the end of December. And while the Trump administration keeps pointing out that these are highly dangerous criminals, the official data shows that ICE targets more and more people who have no criminal record: As of early January 2026, more than 40 percent of individuals arrested and currently detained by ICE were neither convicted criminals nor were they facing pending criminal charges. In January 2025, this group of “other immigration violators” accounted for just 6 percent of detainees arrested by ICE.