Report: ICE Arrests Rise as DHS Reorients Under Mullin

The number of arrests by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) surged in late June as Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin reoriented his department to take a lower-key approach.

Arrests on the Rise

According to a July 1 report by The New York Times, “officials have detained more than 10,000 people in the last five days,” a major increase from the agency’s earlier arrest numbers.

The Times continued:

Agency leaders in recent days ordered top ICE officials to focus more of their officers’ efforts on picking up immigrants they want to deport, according to documents obtained by The New York Times and interviews with federal officials. ICE officers have arrested people at check-ins with immigration authorities, during traffic stops and on the street. The push has apparently yielded results, with recent arrest numbers roughly doubling from the 1,000 picked up each day earlier this year.

Commenting on the Times’ report, Andrew R. Arthur of the Center for Immigration Studies noted, “While 2,000 arrests per day might not seem like much compared to an illegal population that numbers in the millions, it’s a historically blistering pace.” And in a recent Department of Homeland Security (DHS) press release, Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis noted that the President Donald Trump’s administration had hired “an additional 12,000 ICE officers” who were now available to enforce U.S. immigration laws.

As we reported in the April 30, 2026 “Insider Report,” ICE arrests fell noticeably in the first weeks of 2026, raising concerns among immigration hawks that leftist, anti-ICE radicalism in Minneapolis and other cities had created a “Minneapolis Effect” with reduced arrest and deportation numbers. The most recent data indicate that the decline was temporary, and that Mullin is maintaining the DHS’s immigration-arrest and deportation efforts.

Additional Enforcement Actions

The Trump administration has taken additional immigration-enforcement actions in the last three months. According to Arthur:

By early April, a new “Mass Deportation Coalition” (MDC) had assembled, publishing a “playbook” of 21 actions the administration should take to reach a target goal of at least one million deportations per year.

Trump II has begun acting on many of those recommendations, proposing new rules to restrict illegal aliens’ access to the U.S. banking system, expanding criminal prosecutions and civil fines for immigration offenses, and placing a monetary target on the back of asylum fraudsters.

On top of those actions, the administration has reoriented the Department of Justice’s immigration courts in a pro-enforcement direction, launched a review of Mexican consulates over domestic subversion (including weaponized migration), rejected a United Nations review of the Global Compact on Migration, and launched a crackdown on immigration attorneys who perpetrate asylum fraud. It is also working to crack down on birth tourism, particularly following the U.S. Supreme Court’s unconstitutional Trump v. Barbara ruling. And Trump signed into law the Secure America Act, which increased funding for ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Mullin, who has led DHS since March 24, has been credited with “adopt[ing] a lower-profile approach to the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown,” according to a Politico report.

Follow the Constitution

The increased number of ICE arrests is encouraging news for protecting U.S. sovereignty and deterring mass migration. However, this and the Trump administration’s other pro-enforcement actions will merely be temporary if Congress fails to enact stronger immigration laws. Many of the federal government’s existing laws are vaguely written and explicitly delegate congressional power to the president in violation of Article I, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution, explaining why presidential administrations can implement massive shifts in public policy without congressional action. Congress must reassert its power and enact watertight laws cracking down on mass migration.

Additionally, state governments must reclaim their sovereign authority over immigration. The federal government has no authority under the U.S. Constitution to engage in interior law enforcement. Instead of subserviently obeying the federal government, the states should reassert the authority they lawfully have.

On immigration, as with virtually every other issue, following the Constitution is the solution.

This article is part of JP’s weekly online newsletter Insider Report, which is emailed to TNA subscribers each week. Click here to subscribe to JP to receive the Insider Report and access exclusive content.