Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s monthly arrests have increased 627% under President Donald Trump compared with the last year of the Biden administration, according to the Department of Homeland Security.  

In the first month of Trump’s presidency, more than 20,000 illegal aliens were arrested, according to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem. During the last full year of President Joe Biden’s term, ICE arrested a total of 33,000 illegal immigrants.  

In a single month under President @realdonaldtrump, more than 20,000 illegal aliens were arrested.

That’s a 627% increase in monthly arrests compared to just 33,000 at large arrests under Biden for ALL of last year.

— Secretary Kristi Noem (@Sec_Noem) February 26, 2025

“President Trump and this Administration are saving lives every day because of the actions we are taking to secure the border and deport illegal alien criminals,” Noem said in a statement. “Hundreds of thousands of criminals were let into this country illegally. We are sending them home, and they will never be allowed to return.”   

The news of the increase in arrests of illegal aliens comes just two weeks after Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, told the press he was not satisfied with the number of arrests and wanted to see ICE increase its numbers. Just a few weeks into Trump’s presidency, NewsNation reported the president was also dissatisfied with the number of arrests and wanted to see numbers increase.  

ICE agents are working hand in hand with law enforcement in states such as Texas, where Texas Department of Public Safety troopers recently aided DHS in the arrest of criminals and illegal aliens, according to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.

But not all states are willing to work with ICE.

A slew of Democrat-run states, cities, and counties have laws or other regulations that restrict or impede ICE agents’ ability to make arrests.  

The Center for Immigration Studies recently published an interactive map revealing all the “sanctuary jurisdictions” across the nation.  

According to the Center for Immigration Studies, a think tank devoted to researching immigration policy, states that have sanctuary policies are California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Oregon, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont, and Washington.  

The Center for Immigration Studies

Homan has repeatedly stressed that he will not allow sanctuary states and cities to prevent the Trump administration from carrying out its mission to deport illegal aliens, especially criminal illegal aliens.  

“As far as the politicians who want to push back and attack the men and women of ICE and myself, I’m not running a popularity contest,” Homan said in an interview on “Fox and Friends” on Wednesday morning.

“I’m out there doing what the president promised American people we’re going to do,” he said. “We’re out there enforcing the law without apology. We’re going to keep coming. You can put all the roadblocks you want up; we’re going to keep coming.” 

“For these sanctuary cities who want to push back and impede us, we’ll double the man-force there, we’ll double worksite enforcement there,” Homan added. “We’re not going away. We’re going to keep coming at them until every criminal, illegal alien gang member, every illegal alien criminal, is eradicated from this country. That’s when I’ll be satisfied.”