More than 610,000 people have been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement since President Donald Trump's inauguration in January 2025, according to data released Monday by the Deportation Data Project—a figure that exceeds the population of Milwaukee, Baltimore, or the entire state of Wyoming.

The numbers mark a historic surge in immigration enforcement, with ICE arresting an average of 1,500 people per day in July alone, the highest monthly total since Trump retook office. In that single month, more than 45,000 individuals were detained while over 1,100 were removed from the country daily, according to government figures analyzed by The Guardian and The Marshall Project.

The spike represents a fivefold increase in deportations following ICE arrests compared to mid-2024 levels, reflecting the administration's renewed focus on interior enforcement. Unlike Trump's first term, when arrests often targeted individuals with criminal convictions, the current sweep has increasingly caught people with no criminal record, The New York Times reported Wednesday.

Record Arrests Push ICE Closer to Daily Target

ICE appears closer than ever to meeting its stated goal of 2,000 daily arrests, a target administration officials set early in Trump's second term. The agency's detention capacity has expanded significantly, with facilities holding detainees across multiple states reporting near-capacity conditions.

The Department of Homeland Security announced last week that recent deportations included individuals convicted of serious crimes including murder, rape, and arson. However, immigration advocacy groups have raised concerns about the breadth of enforcement operations, noting that many detained individuals have lived in the United States for decades and have no criminal history beyond immigration violations.

Political Implications for Midterms

The aggressive enforcement push comes as new polling suggests Trump's immigration policies may pose challenges for Republicans in the upcoming midterm elections. While Republican voters remain strongly supportive of ICE operations, independent voters and Black Americans have expressed growing concern about enforcement tactics and family separations, according to polling data released by USA Today earlier this month.

Only a fraction of independent voters now support ICE's enforcement approach, a significant shift from earlier in Trump's term when his immigration agenda enjoyed broader cross-party support. The shift in sentiment could prove consequential in battleground districts where independent voters will likely decide control of the House.

Trump administration officials have defended the scale of operations as necessary to restore rule of law at the border and in the interior. The White House has not commented on the latest detention figures.

Civil liberties organizations have called for Congress to exercise oversight of ICE operations and ensure detention conditions meet constitutional standards. Several Democratic members of Congress have requested GAO investigations into detention facility conditions and alleged due process violations.