The number of people in ICE detention is the highest it's been since 2019

The number of immigrants in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody nationwide is the highest it’s been since 2019. That, as the Trump administration ramps up its deportation campaign with raids across the U.S.

ICE data through June 1h shows the agency is detaining more than 56,000 people. That’s up from just over 50,000 a few weeks ago.

Setareh Ghandehari, advocacy director with the Detention Watch Network, says detention numbers have increased by roughly 40% since January.

“There’s been an increasing escalation of this sort of multilayered mass detention deportation action by the Trump administration. You know, this past month, we saw targeted raids in Los Angeles,” Ghandehari said. “And we know that they initiated Operation At Large basically trying to reach a daily quota trying to lock up 3000 people each day.”

This month’s detainee population surpasses a previous high of roughly 55,000 during the first Trump administration in August 2019. Data compiled by the group TRAC shows that was largely the result of arrests by Border Patrol. Most detained this month were arrested inside the U.S. by ICE.

The spike comes as Senate Republicans negotiate a spending bill that could inflate ICE’s budget by billions and allow it to detain some 100,000 people at once.