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ICE is now arresting nearly 1,200 illegal immigrants daily and detaining more than 56,000. By arresting more people without criminal records, the agency is shattering records as it begins fulfilling President Trump’s promise of mass deportations.

Daily deportations have topped 1,100 as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement tries to move people out of the country as fast as it arrests them.

Experts say the president has had to battle significant headwinds to reach this point five months into his term.

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller reportedly ordered ICE last month to broaden its aperture of arrests. He said ICE must be more aggressive to significantly decrease the number of illegal immigrants who settled in the U.S. during the Biden administration.

As a result, ICE is arresting far more migrants without criminal records.

As of June 14, 37% of the roughly 39,300 ICE detainees had criminal convictions and 33% had pending criminal charges, for a total criminal population of 70%.

That was down from 77% in late May and significantly down from more than 94% in January, at the end of the Biden administration.

ICE did not respond to a request for comment.

Proponents of the crackdown hailed the numbers.

“Some of the expectations that were built were unreasonable, that all of a sudden we were going to have mass deportations. You have to ramp up to something like that, and I think the administration is showing they are ramping up,” said Rosemary Jenks, policy director at the Immigration Accountability Project.

However, she warned that the pace will be difficult to sustain, much less increase, without a massive infusion of money from Congress, especially for the detention beds.

As of June 14, ICE reported 56,397 people in physical custody, over 5,000 more than at the end of May.

It breaks the all-time high of 55,654 set during the 2019 border surge.

Congress has funded a daily average of only 44,000 beds, so ICE could hit a budget crunch this summer.

Of those in custody on June 14, 633 were being held as part of family units. The Biden administration ended family detention, but the Trump administration revived it. Officials said family detention is crucial to deportation.

The family detention number on June 14 was roughly a 130% increase over the total at the end of May.

ICE reported deporting 15,656 people during the first two weeks of June, totaling 1,118 daily. That was below the record pace set in 2012 under President Obama, though his numbers were skewed higher because they included far more border crossers.

From June 1 to June 14, ICE reported 16,704 agency book-ins or arrests, which are independent of border arrests. Experts said the number is on pace for a record.

Critics accuse ICE of “quota hunting,” or pumping up numbers by pursuing relatively low-level illegal immigrants. They say that violates Mr. Trump’s campaign promise to target “criminals” among the illegal immigrant population.

Mr. Trump’s pledge of mass deportations cannot readily be accomplished by focusing only on those with criminal entanglements.

In recent weeks, Mr. Trump has tried to get it both ways.

In remarks and social media posts, he urged ICE to strive for mass deportations but told the agency to avoid the country’s “heartland.”

“In order to achieve this, we must expand efforts to detain and deport Illegal Aliens in America’s largest Cities, such as Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York, where Millions upon Millions of Illegal Aliens reside,” he said on Truth Social.

Immigrant rights groups say the administration has gone back and forth in its pronouncements about immigration enforcement but on-the-ground reports indicate continued enforcement at farms, hotels and other businesses.

“Make no mistake: President Trump may be the one sitting behind the Resolute Desk, but Stephen Miller is the one running the show when it comes to immigration in the Trump White House,” Vanessa Cardenas, executive director at the pro-migrant group America’s Voice, said last week amid reports of confusion over ICE’s direction.

She said the expansion of deportations is costing Mr. Trump support among part of his political base who wanted a secure border but didn’t back his broad deportation goals.

However, Ms. Jenks said broadening the aperture of arrests is critical to pushing out the millions of arrivals from the Biden years.

“We’ve stopped digging is good, but how do you get out of that hole?” she said. “The only way you get them to leave is by doing random enforcement. Grandma has to be deported, your next-door neighbor has to be deported. Not just hardened criminals, not just gang-bangers.”

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