Posted on 11/07/2025 3:30:26 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum
The number of detainees in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody increased to 66,000 this week, setting a new record high as President Trump intensifies his crackdown on illegal immigration, according to internal Department of Homeland Security data obtained by CBS News.
Never before has ICE held so many detainees facing deportation at any given time, according to officials, historical data and immigration policy experts.
ICE's detainee population has ballooned by nearly 70% since Mr. Trump took office for a second time in January, when ICE was holding around 39,000 individuals in its detention system. The previous high before Mr. Trump's second administration was recorded during his first term, in 2019, when ICE held about 56,000 detainees at one point, according to government figures compiled by researchers at Syracuse University.
ICE detains immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally or other noncitizens the government seeks to deport until their cases are adjudicated, unless they are granted bond or released on humanitarian grounds.
Historically, the agency's detention system has mostly consisted of for-profit prisons and county jails. But, under the second Trump administration, that detention network has been supplemented by military installations and facilities in Republican-led states that have been converted into immigration holding sites.
ICE now has enough detention beds to hold as many as 70,000 detainees at any time, up from its 41,500 bed capacity at the beginning of the second Trump administration, a U.S. official told CBS News. That capacity is expected to continue increasing, as ICE received $45 billion in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act just to expand detention levels. Officials have talked about using the unprecedented infusion of funds to operate 100,000 detention beds.
Muzaffar Chishti, a senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute, a non-partisan...
(Excerpt) Read more at justthenews.com ...
And the DHS is pounding them out of the country as fast as they can get the planes loaded up and dispatched. But Air Traffic Control is getting a little jammed up at the moment...
“ICE’s detainee population reaches 66,000, a new record high, statistics show”
It’s disappointing I know. They can do a lot better! And I believe they will.
For a comparison, the Big House in Ann Arbor holds 68,000. That’s a whole football stadium of illegals.
Hope they can get deported faster. Maybe they should charter a few Holland America ships.
That’s terrible!! (It should be much higher than that.)
Whatever happened to COVID?
I voted for this.
“”””Hope they can get deported faster. Maybe they should charter a few Holland America ships.”””
We need to start the liberty ship program ASAP. It will hit two of President trumps goals. American ship building and the deportation of illegals.
It’s disappointing I know. They can do a lot better! And I believe they will.
What was the estimated total of illegal aliens entering the U.S. during 2021-2024, 12-17M?
no verifiable count of legal immigrants deported by ICE in 2025 can be produced:
But DDG's AI states:
As of September 2025, approximately 400,000 immigrants have been deported by ICE, with an additional 1.6 million self-deportations reported during the same period. The number of individuals in ICE detention has also reached an all-time high, with around 59,000 people detained.it also reports:
Since President Biden took office, there have been over 10 million encounters with migrants at the U.S. southern border, with approximately 7.8 million of those classified as illegal border crossings. Additionally, estimates suggest a significant increase in the unauthorized immigrant population during his administration, with some reports indicating a net increase of around 5.5 to 6 million illegal immigrants. Cato Institute BBCThe last two figures are confusing, but using a conservative number of 460,00 deported out of 18 million = 2.56%
Of course, the problem is not immigration itself, but the social welfare programs that entice many immigrants to come here not simply for opportunities of employment and a better government and economy, as in the 1890s, but for the social welfare programs that began under LBJ.
Many of them should not be flown anywhere. If they are Mexicans or Central/South Americans (or anyone who transited Mexico to come here), dump them back across the border. Mexico enabled them, let Mexico send them home.
Those flown in under Biden are a different matter. Cut some of the RATs’ favorite useless programs and spend the money on air travel. But use C-130s or other cargo craft rather than comfy passenger planes.
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