U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested 49,571 people in July 2026, the highest monthly total of President Trump’s second term. Data released by the Deportation Data Project—a collaboration between the University of California, Berkeley and the University of California, Los Angeles—shows a 15 percent increase in detainments compared to June 2026.
This increase follows a period earlier in 2026 where monthly detention numbers remained in the lower 30,000 range. The current surge represents a 70 percent increase in monthly arrests since February 2026, when the administration initiated "Operation Metro Surge," an immigration enforcement operation that began in Minnesota.
Federal agencies, including ICE and Customs and Border Protection, have expanded enforcement nationally throughout the year. The administration has also moved to end deportation protections for specific groups following a June Supreme Court ruling. This ruling allowed the government to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS)—a program providing legal stay for those from designated countries facing conflict or disaster—for approximately 330,000 Haitians and 6,000 Syrians. Last week, ICE conducted a flight returning more than 160 immigrants to Haiti.
The enforcement actions are also impacting the families of active-duty U.S. military personnel. As of Monday, seven spouses or parents of service members have been removed from the country, including Cristy Maryori Villafranca-Trejo, the wife of an Army Sergeant. Service members, such as Navy sailor Joshua Aviles and Army Sgt. Hedar Leonel Turcios Juarez, have stated that these actions require them to create new plans to balance their military responsibilities with the sudden loss of family members in the home. While some individuals, like Aviles's father, were released following public attention, others have already been deported to their countries of origin.
Public perception of these operations has shifted as the number of arrests has increased. According to an early August poll by The AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, 58 percent of Americans disapprove of the administration's handling of immigration, a 10 percentage point decrease in approval since the start of the term. A January New York Times/Siena poll further reported that nearly half of respondents believed the administration had gone too far in restricting legal immigration. Enforcement operations remain ongoing as the administration continues to roll back stays of deportation and invest in agency staffing.