The agency has pivoted from high-profile raids toward a strategy the New York Times describes as a "quiet" surge, focusing on arrests at airports, schools, and truck stops via partnerships with local police. This approach saw immigration detentions peak in July with nearly 50,000 people arrested, the highest monthly total of the term, with over 50% of those detainees lacking any criminal conviction or pending charges. Enforcement operations spanned the US from Maine to Arizona and Wyoming, often conducted during routine traffic stops.
Tuesday, October 20, 2026
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ICE Hires 5,000 Staff After 150,000 Summer Arrests
US Politics21 days ago
The US government is scaling up its internal immigration enforcement to accelerate the removal of undocumented individuals across the country. Immigration and Customs Enforcement plans to hire 5,000 more employees by the end of the year, an expansion that follows a surge of nearly 150,000 arrests made between June and August. The agency's workforce now totals 29,000 personnel after adding 8,000 staff members since the start of the current administration's second term.
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