The most recent data from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE) offer a clearer x-ray of the immigration strategy of Donald Trump's government. After several months without updating this information, the agency revealed that it has 65,765 people in custody for immigration reasons and that it is making an average of 1,474 arrests daily, the highest number recorded during the current administration.

The numbers, as of July 11, show that ICE's detention capacity continues to grow, although it is still below the record of 70,766 people detained, reached in January of this year.

The information was released after a period in which the agency stopped consistently publishing its statistics, an issue that has generated criticism for a lack of transparency.

Arrests increase, but deportations do not grow at the same rate

The figures show that the biggest change is not in the number of people detained, but in the speed with which they enter detention centers.

During June, ICE made more than 1,300 arrests daily, while in the first days of July the average increased to 1,474, the highest level on record under the current administration.

In contrast, deportations remain at an average of close to 1,246 people per day, a high figure compared to previous years, although lower than the growth rate of arrests.

Another relevant fact is that an important part of the people in custody do not have a criminal record, which keeps the debate open about the priorities of the federal government's immigration policy.

Court orders also influence releases

The new statistics include for the first time a section on people released by order of a judge. Since January, 10,649 releases have been recorded under this mechanism, a figure that specialists consider reflects the increase in legal resources against allegedly improper detentions.

In addition, analysts questioned whether ICE stopped regularly publishing this data after the approval of the new federal budget, which eliminated some transparency requirements that Congress had maintained since 2018.

Although the agency did not explain why it decided to release the figures again, the new data allows us to gauge the scope of the immigration control policy promoted by the Trump administration and the increase in detention actions throughout the country.