US immigration enforcement is operating at its largest scale in modern history. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests hit record monthly highs in the summer of 2026, detention numbers climbed roughly 70 percent since President Donald Trump returned to office, and the agency has more than doubled its workforce. At the same time, ICE's tactics have grown noticeably quieter — fewer militarised street raids, more quick, low-profile arrests at homes, workplaces, airports and traffic stops. And in late September, the Supreme Court twice sided with the Trump administration in cases that will shape the deportation campaign for years to come.
Table of Contents
- Latest developments (updated October 5, 2026)
- The numbers: arrests, detentions and deportations
- A quieter but wider dragnet
- Operations spotlight: Kansas, Southern California, Illinois
- Detention expansion under scrutiny
- The courts shape the crackdown
- Policy under the Trump administration
- Key Takeaways
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Sources
- Read Next on Chronicle
Latest developments (updated October 5, 2026)
Supreme Court lets third-country deportations resume (Sept. 29). For the third time, the Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to deport migrants to countries other than their own while litigation over the practice continues, pausing a Boston federal judge's ruling that the policy is unlawful, according to USA Today. The court also said it will hear arguments in December and reach a final decision by the end of June. The three liberal justices would have kept the policy on hold, and attorneys for the migrants warned the practice has caused "grave and irreversible harms," per USA Today.
Supreme Court to review mandatory detention (Oct. 1). The court agreed to hear the administration's appeal of a lower-court ruling against its policy of mandatory detention for millions of immigrants, regardless of how long they have been in the United States, per law.com.
Kansas operation aftermath (Oct. 2). Communities in southwest Kansas were still dealing with the effects of an enforcement operation that began September 22, with fear persisting among the region's large Hispanic population and schools and businesses affected in Dodge City, Liberal and Garden City, according to an Oct. 2 report. The Justice Department reported 104 arrests.
Southern California pre-dawn raids (Oct. 1). Federal agents captured four alleged migrants wanted for credit fraud in Orange County and Long Beach, including a 48-year-old Mexican national who had previously been removed from the US in 1999, the New York Post reported.
No ICE at polling places. With early voting underway ahead of the midterms, the Department of Homeland Security told the Associated Press it has no plan to send ICE officers to patrol polling places en masse, while leaving open targeted arrests for specific public-safety threats, per an Oct. 2 report.
The numbers: arrests, detentions and deportations
The Trump administration says it has deported 985,000 people since January 2025, though it has not provided a detailed breakdown by federal agency — the total combines ICE removals with deportations by Customs and Border Protection and repatriations by the Coast Guard, according to CNN. ICE's preliminary data for the current fiscal year, which ended September 30, shows removals at their highest levels in recent years, per CNN.
Arrests have hit new monthly highs for three consecutive months, topping 50,000 in both July and August, CNN reported. An investigation by The Guardian put ICE apprehensions at nearly 50,000 in July, the highest monthly figure on record.
Detention has expanded dramatically. By July 2026, there were nearly 66,000 detainees in ICE custody — an increase of nearly 70 percent from when Trump took office, CNN reported. A Government Accountability Office audit put the average daily population at 67,180 on July 30, 2026, up from 39,314 on January 20, 2025, according to a summary of the GAO findings. Independent analyses of the agency's own data found that 70.6 percent of detainees had never been convicted of any crime, per Factually and TRAC data — though the agency counts people with pending charges in its own "criminal record" figures.
A quieter but wider dragnet
The administration appears to have deliberately toned down the highly visible, militarised raids that generated widespread backlash earlier in the crackdown, The Guardian found. Gone, mostly, are the armoured vehicles and mass street operations. In their place are short, quiet arrests — at petrol stations, shops, airports, traffic stops and homes — often executed in about 90 seconds with "very soft feet," as National Immigration Project attorney Gracie Willis told The Guardian.
The scale behind the quiet is enormous. ICE has more than doubled its workforce this year to over 22,000 officers and staff after Congress provided the Department of Homeland Security with $75 billion in additional funding, per The Guardian's investigation. As of September 15, the agency had signed more than 2,500 agreements under the 287(g) programme allowing state and local law enforcement to participate in federal immigration enforcement — and in July, local and state agencies accounted for 13 percent of ICE-related arrests, up from less than 5 percent the previous year, Cuba Headlines reported.
Trump said earlier this year that the government could use "a little bit of a softer touch," and DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin told senators he wanted the agency out of the daily headlines, per The Guardian's reporting. But critics say the shift has made enforcement harder to see and people harder to protect. Amnesty International published a report based on interviews with 154 people affected by operations in Chicago, Minneapolis-St. Paul, New Orleans and Washington, DC, documenting allegations including racial discrimination, arbitrary detention, excessive force, unlawful surveillance and inhumane detention conditions, per Beyond the Border News.
Operations spotlight: Kansas, Southern California, Illinois
Kansas. The operation that began September 22 in southwest Kansas — described as the "golden triangle of beef" — reportedly came without warning or coordination with local authorities, according to the New York Times, via Farm Policy News. Industry groups in Texas, Kansas and Oklahoma said ICE operations prompted delays in cattle shipments worth millions of dollars in lost revenue and disrupted feedlots, dairy processors and transport hubs. Secretary Mullin insisted ICE was not conducting worksite enforcement but targeting criminals and foreigners with outstanding deportation orders, while a Justice Department release put the total at 104 arrests, per the Oct. 2 community-impact report. Schools felt it acutely: a Dodge City second-grade teacher said seven of her 20 students were absent the day agents arrived.
Southern California. On October 1, Homeland Security Investigations teams using drones tracked and arrested four men accused of credit-card fraud in Orange County and Long Beach before dawn, the New York Post reported. One suspect, a 48-year-old Mexican national previously removed in 1999, allegedly used fake Social Security numbers to run up thousands in bogus debt.
Illinois. Members of the Illinois congressional delegation led by Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi demanded independent investigations into "Operation Midway Blitz," the federal enforcement campaign in Illinois, citing an October 1 raid in South Shore where ICE, CBP, FBI and ATF agents used flashbang grenades, helicopters and drones to storm an apartment complex — detaining residents including US citizens and arresting Alderwoman Jessie Fuentes as she visited an injured hospital patient, per the delegation's letter.
Detention expansion under scrutiny
The GAO audit found ICE invested billions in six detention expansion initiatives without a comprehensive strategic plan, a gap that led to stops, starts and waste. Under Congress's July 2025 One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which allocated $45 billion for detention capacity, ICE spending surged to $19 billion between October 2025 and July 2026, compared with $11 billion the previous full fiscal year, per the audit summary. The audit even flagged $2.85 million spent by the Department of Defense on tents at Guantanamo Bay that were never used — the facility averaged just 16 detainees a day in fiscal year 2026. ICE has committed to producing a strategic plan for detention operations by August 31, 2027, which the GAO deemed too slow.
Deaths in enforcement encounters have drawn national attention. The Guardian looked back at a single 24-hour period in July during which three people died in incidents connected to immigration enforcement in three states, and USA Today reported that DHS acknowledged 35-year-old Mario David Coronado Juárez — who died after crashing while fleeing an attempted ICE traffic stop in Grand Rapids, Michigan — was not the person agents had intended to stop, per Beyond the Border News.
The courts shape the crackdown
The September 29 Supreme Court order was the third time the justices let third-country deportations continue during litigation — a practice in which migrants are sent to countries that are not their own, on the basis of diplomatic assurances or their own raised fears, per Reuters reporting summarised in the decision's coverage. The administration calls the procedure "an essential tool" for removing people, including serious criminals, whose home countries refuse to take them back, according to the azcentral account of the filing. Lower courts had found the policy unlawful because it denies immigrants due process to challenge removals to unfamiliar nations; the Supreme Court will now review that question itself.
The court's new term also brings a mandatory-detention case that could decide how many people ICE must hold while their cases proceed, per law.com.
Policy under the Trump administration
The administration has framed enforcement as national security. Ahead of the 25th anniversary of 9/11, DHS announced that from January 20, 2025 to September 9, 2026, ICE had arrested more than 2,150 known or suspected terrorists and deported 2,015 of them, per the official DHS release. Secretary Mullin said ICE had acted "under President Trump's strong leadership" to remove the threats.
The enforcement push now intersects with election season: DHS told the AP it is not planning operations targeting polling locations as early voting proceeds toward the November 3 midterms — an issue already tangled in the midterms endgame. And the administration's third-country deportation agreements — the subject of the Supreme Court fight — connect directly to deals such as Burundi's agreement to accept US deportees.
Key Takeaways
- ICE arrests topped 50,000 in both July and August 2026 — record monthly highs — while detention surged to roughly 66,000–67,000 people, about 70 percent above pre-Trump levels.
- Enforcement has shifted from highly visible raids to quieter 90-second arrests at homes, workplaces, airports and traffic stops, backed by a workforce that has more than doubled to 22,000+.
- On Sept. 29, 2026, the Supreme Court allowed third-country deportations to resume for the third time and set a December hearing; it also agreed to review the administration's mandatory detention policy.
- A GAO audit found ICE spent billions expanding detention — to $19 billion in the current period — without a strategic plan, and flagged millions in waste including unused Guantanamo Bay tents.
- Recent operations include 104 arrests in southwest Kansas, four pre-dawn arrests in Southern California, and a heavily criticised apartment raid in Chicago's South Shore.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many people has ICE deported under Trump?
The Trump administration says it has deported 985,000 people since January 2025, but that figure combines removals by ICE, Customs and Border Protection and the Coast Guard, and the administration has not released a detailed agency-by-agency breakdown, according to CNN. ICE-specific removals for the fiscal year ended September 30 were at their highest levels in recent years.
Why is ICE in the news for "quieter" arrests?
After highly publicised operations provoked backlash — including fatal shootings — the agency shifted from militarised street raids to quick, low-profile arrests, The Guardian found. But quieter has not meant smaller: monthly arrests hit all-time highs in the summer of 2026.
What are third-country deportations?
A policy of deporting migrants to countries that are not their own, rather than their home countries — for example when the home country refuses to take them back. The Supreme Court allowed the practice to continue on Sept. 29, 2026, while it reviews lower-court rulings that called it unlawful, per USA Today.
What is the 287(g) programme?
A federal programme under which ICE signs agreements allowing state and local law enforcement agencies to participate in immigration enforcement. ICE had signed more than 2,500 such agreements as of September 15, 2026, per The Guardian's investigation.
Is ICE at polling places during the midterms?
No — DHS told the Associated Press it has no plan to send ICE officers to patrol polling places en masse, though it left open targeted arrests for specific public-safety threats, per the Oct. 2 report.
Why is the GAO detention audit significant?
Because it found ICE spent billions expanding detention — to $19 billion in the current period versus $11 billion the prior year — without a comprehensive strategic plan, and documented waste such as $2.85 million in unused Guantanamo Bay tents, per the audit summary.
Sources
- USA Today — September 29, 2026: "In win for Trump, Supreme Court allows third-country deportations to resume."
- azcentral — September 29, 2026: "Supreme Court allows ICE to restart deportations to third countries."
- law.com / National Law Journal — October 1, 2026: "Supreme Court Resumes Trump's Third Country Deportations, Sets Hearing."
- CNN — October 2026: "Tracking the numbers behind Trump's immigration offensive."
- The Guardian (via Indian Express) — September 29, 2026: "Taken in 90 seconds: how quiet ICE immigration arrests hit an all-time high in the US."
- DHS — September 10, 2026: "ICE Removes More Than 2,000 Known or Suspected Terrorists Under President Trump."
- WSNext (GAO findings summary) — September 2026: "Government Audit Reveals Immigration Agency Wasted Millions in Unplanned Facility Expansion."
- Farm Policy News / AP — September 2026: "Immigration Raids Disrupting Kansas Meatpacking Operations."
- MigraPrep — October 2, 2026: "Trump's immigration sweeps leave southwest Kansas communities looking for a way forward."
- MigraPrep — October 2, 2026: "Trump administration says it has no plans for ICE officers at polls."
- New York Post — October 1, 2026: "Feds crush California illegal migrants in pre-dawn raids."
- Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi — 2026: Illinois delegation letter demanding investigations into ICE raids ("Operation Midway Blitz").
- Beyond the Border News — October 2026: "ICE's quiet tactics, new California laws protecting immigrants."
