Inside the Push for Detention and Mass Deportations

Of the 26 executive orders President Trump signed on his first day in office, nearly half were related to immigration, including directives to set new enforcement priorities, expand agreements with local governments to assist in immigration enforcement, and increase staffing levels for Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and officers. 

Shortly after the executive orders were issued, federal agencies released memorandums that removed protections against immigration enforcement in sensitive locations, like schools and houses of worship, and authorized ICE officers and agents to apprehend noncitizens at courthouses. The directives all set the tone for what President Trump promised would be the “largest deportation program” the country had ever seen. 

At the beginning of 2025, approximately 39,000 people were held in detention centers across the country — a number that matched the peak of detentions under the previous presidential administration. By mid-August, nearly six months into the new presidential administration, that number hit a record high of 60,000 people. The expedited changes in immigration policy and hurried approaches have caused issues for individuals, families, law enforcement, and government agencies.

In order to meet the mass deportation goals, many federal government agencies and departments, from the military to the Internal Revenue Service, were tapped. The Bureau of Prisons was charged to provide more detention space, State Department agents were to assist with arrests and deportations, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development and Internal Revenue Service began sharing data with ICE agents and officers. Within the Justice Department, members of the Drug Enforcement Administration, Bureau of Alcohol and Firearms, and the U.S. Marshals Service were deputized to carry out immigration enforcement. The Department of Health and Human Services began sharing Medicaid data with ICE in order to locate noncitizens for deportation. At the time of this article’s publication, a judge has temporarily blocked DHS from using Medicaid data until it creates a “reasoned decision-making” process instead of changing long-standing policies on data sharing. 

The collaboration and data sharing between agencies underscores a sharp shift in immigration enforcement from the border to the interior of the U.S. Under the Biden administration, CBP, which handles law enforcement at the border, was responsible for up to 83% of the arrests conducted by itself and ICE. But in recent months, ICE, which enforces immigration laws outside of border zones, has rapidly expanded its role. Just six months ago, ICE made about 38% of immigration arrests; now it accounts for 75% of immigration arrests.

At the current rate, the number of ICE arrests for this fiscal year may reach 240,000 — double last year’s. This change partly reflects fewer irregular crossings at the border, where asylum is largely inaccessible, leading to fewer CBP arrests. It also reflects ICE’s collaboration with nearly 900 voluntary local law enforcement agencies that are permitted to perform immigration law enforcement. 

Detention and funding issues

By February of 2025, the surge in arrests had begun to overwhelm the detention system. Tom Homan, the administration’s border czar, urged senators to allocate an additional $175 billion to meet the demand for more facility capacity and ICE agents. Russel Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, told Senate Republicans that ICE was running out of money and he “can’t rob other accounts any longer.” Without additional funding, ICE risked violating the Antideficiency Act, which prohibits federal agencies from spending beyond their appropriated budgets. By June, the number of individuals in immigration detention was 140% over the contractual capacity, and one estimate placed the agency over budget by $1 billion. 

Even so, while the reconciliation bill was being debated in Congress, the administration moved ahead with plans to open additional facilities and expand contracts with private prison companies. Existing contracts ICE had with Geo Group and CoreCivic were modified to add more than 10,000 detention beds. New contracts were negotiated through a process known as “letter contracts,” a method that allows work to begin before final terms are settled. In total, the new and modified contracts for Geo Group alone are estimated to be over $500 million and will double the company’s total annual revenue. Meanwhile, family detention centers that were closed during the Biden administration are set to reopen, starting with the Dilley facility in Texas. Adding to the cost of detention, some noncitizen detainees were sent to Guantanamo Bay, where expenses reached $40 million in its first two months in use. However, all concerns surrounding funding were dispelled after Congress passed the reconciliation bill and doubled the DHS budget.  

Data troubles and logistical costs

With the flurry of executive orders and administrative actions during the early months of the Trump administration, immigration arrests were high at the conclusion of the first 100 days. Yet deportations were projected to fall short of the one million promised for the year. Two separate DHS press releases shared conflicting numbers regarding deportations at the 100-day mark, ranging from 135,000 to 152,000. Based on ICE’s congressionally mandated reports, Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) argues that a more accurate number of deportations was closer to 72,000, about 1% below the Biden administration’s daily average. 

According to NBC News’s interpretation of ICE data, the current administration was deporting an average of 14,700 immigrants a month between February and June. More recently, The New York Times reported that increased funding has accelerated deportations to approximately 1,500 individuals per day and the administration has deported a total of 180,000 people. DHS says it has deported 332,000 people, including encounters who are quickly turned around at the border. If the current rate continues, the administration could deport nearly 400,000 people by the end of its first year — more than the 271,000 individuals deported by the previous administration in its final fiscal year.

However, the accuracy of these numbers remains difficult to assess. The Deportation Data Project obtained data sets through Freedom of Information Act lawsuits, but information regarding removals contained obvious errors. Unfortunately, the Office of Homeland Security Statistics, an independent and congressionally funded office, has not released comprehensive data regarding deportations since November 2024. 

Beyond data inconsistencies, logistical and legal hurdles continue to complicate the administration’s deportation efforts. Although an estimated 1.5 million noncitizens have final deportation orders, many cannot be located, and others cannot be removed because their home countries refuse to accept deportation flights. In response, the U.S. has established agreements with six “third countries,” including El Salvador and South Sudan, and plans to involve a total of 51 countries. 

Another complication for the administration is that many of the noncitizens currently detained in the U.S. but outside of the 100-mile border zone are not immediately eligible for deportation and may have pending immigration cases. Under current law, noncitizens who can demonstrate at least two years of continuous presence in the U.S. are entitled to a hearing before removal. To make more noncitizens eligible for removal, the administration adopted a strategy targeting more recent arrivals. The Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), in coordination with DHS, has begun to dismiss asylum cases of those who have been present in the U.S. less than two years, allowing the deportation of these individuals without due process. 

Notably, a significant portion of those arrested by ICE in recent months have no criminal record, underscoring a shift toward broad enforcement rather than a targeted strategy against individuals who pose a public threat. According to TRAC, only 30% of individuals currently in detention have criminal convictions. The Deportation Data Project estimates that of the 132,485 arrests made during the first six months of the Trump administration, 39% involved individuals with criminal convictions, 31% had pending criminal charges, and 30% had no criminal charges at all. In contrast, of the 52,334 ICE arrests in the last six months of the Biden administration, 56% had criminal convictions, 28% had pending criminal charges and 16% had no criminal charges. The New York Times argues that when looking at data from December 2024 through June 2025, arrests of individuals with no prior convictions or charges increased by almost 20 times. 

The existing backlog of 11.3 million immigration cases may further delay deportation proceedings. Under the administration’s policy of mandatory detention, individuals who crossed the border without inspection will be held in immigration detention until their cases are decided. However, the timeline for resolving these cases remains uncertain. 

To bypass some of these procedural delays, the administration has expanded the use of expedited removal, allowing for quick deportations of noncitizens who cannot prove they have been present for at least two years. This process limits access to appeals and other forms of legal recourse. Additionally, immigration judges and officers have been instructed to dismiss certain cases, allowing law enforcement to apprehend individuals when they appear for scheduled hearings.  

The administration's enforcement tactics have raised concerns about family separation. The New York Times reported several cases of family separation, which the Trump administration denies. While there is not a widespread use of the practice, the administration claims to present families with a choice to leave the country together or be separated. For some, such as the family of Russian dissidents, returning was not an option. According to the administration, the 2018 court order that halted family separation at the Southern border does not apply to cases involving enforcement in the interior of the country. 

The administration’s strategies reveal a system under pressure, rushing to meet ambitious deportation goals by expanding detention, removing legal protections, and diverting resources from other parts of the government. The government has demonstrated a willingness to prioritize removal numbers over transparency and due process. Though officials argue these tactics as necessary for public safety, their consequences ripple far beyond immigrant communities. 

This article was written by Alexa Alvarado and Nori Gomez, immigration program specialists at Mormon Women for Ethical Government.