ICE has never arrested people as fast as it is arresting them now. In July the agency's arrests reached the highest pace in its 23-year history - about 1,593 a day, up from roughly 1,437 in June - under DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin [1].
The pace compounds into a large annual figure: more than 356,000 people deported so far in fiscal 2026, with the year not yet over [1]. The detention system has filled to match, holding 65,765 people at last count [1].
Who is being swept up complicates the framing that usually accompanies the numbers. Of those 65,765 detainees, TRAC's July 11 data show 70.6 percent have no criminal conviction [2]. A record enforcement pace is not, on this evidence, a record pace of removing convicted criminals.
The figure worth holding onto is the rate itself. An arrest pace at a 23-year high is the operational signature of the largest immigration-enforcement push the agency has run - and the number climbing fastest is not convictions but arrests [1][2].
