DHS Vows Faster Mass Deportations After Nearly 1.2 Million Illegal Aliens Are Removed Under Trump

The Department of Homeland Security put the administration's next goal in three words Friday: "Accelerating Mass Deportations." The post on X, a dark poster of President Trump with a jet climbing overhead and a law-enforcement vehicle speeding past, drew more than 9,000 likes.

It's a promise backed by numbers. Nearly 1.2 million illegal aliens have been deported or removed during Trump's second term, and nearly 1.3 million illegal-alien arrests have been carried out, the White House said on Oct. 20. DHS says about 70% of the people ICE arrests have been charged with or convicted of a crime in the United States.

Who ICE picked up this week

On Thursday alone, ICE arrested a convicted murderer and four others convicted of sex crimes, most of them against children, DHS announced Friday:

Luc Quy Tran, from Vietnam, convicted of first-degree murder in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Luis Enrique Nucamendi-Molina, from Mexico, convicted of sex abuse of a minor in Harford County, Maryland.

Rahjai Ornardo Suckoo, from Jamaica, convicted of enticing a minor in Moab, Utah.

Fredy Adeli Cuxum-Orellana, from Guatemala, convicted of illicit sexual contact with a victim under 16 in Stamford, Connecticut.

Francisco Cortez-Perez, from Mexico, convicted of two counts of incest and two counts of statutory rape in Jackson County, Missouri.

"Years of open border policies have allowed criminal illegal aliens to flood our communities and harm innocent Americans," Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said. "Under President Trump, that lawlessness is over."

The same day, DHS identified the man charged with taking a sledgehammer to the Iwo Jima Memorial outside Marine Corps Base Quantico as Miguel Alonso Maldonado Soriano, an illegal alien from Mexico who entered in 1999 and was given DACA under Obama. His DACA has since expired. We covered that attack here.

The numbers behind the push

Removals. In the first year of Trump's second term, ICE carried out more than 475,000 removals and nearly 379,000 arrests, ICE chief Todd Lyons told Congress in February. "The President tasked us with mass deportations, and we are fulfilling that mandate," he testified.

Record arrests. ICE set a new monthly arrest record three months running this summer: 43,900 in June, 50,208 in July and 50,925 in August, DHS reported. Border czar Tom Homan said September brought ICE's highest monthly number of removals yet, he said on Fox News' "The Big Weekend Show" on Oct. 17 (Fox News video). DHS hasn't published the September figure.

Gangs. More than 12,100 gang members have been arrested, including more than 1,500 Tren de Aragua affiliates and nearly 2,000 MS-13 affiliates, per the White House.

Terror suspects. From Jan. 20, 2025 to Sept. 9, 2026, ICE arrested more than 2,150 known or suspected terrorists inside the United States and deported 2,015 of them, DHS said.

The border itself. Nationwide encounters in fiscal 2026 fell below 380,000, the lowest in agency history, compared with roughly 2.7 million a year under Biden, and Border Patrol released zero illegal crossers all year, the White House said.

What illegal-alien crime costs one state

The first crime is the crossing. Entering the United States anywhere other than a legal port of entry, or slipping past inspection, is a federal crime under 8 U.S.C. § 1325, punishable by up to six months in prison for a first offense. Coming back after being deported is a felony under 8 U.S.C. § 1326, with up to 20 years for anyone removed after an aggravated felony conviction. For everyone who crossed illegally, the crimes counted below came after the first one.

Texas keeps the most detailed public count. Since June 2011, more than 335,000 illegal aliens identified through DHS fingerprint checks have been booked into Texas jails, the Texas Department of Public Safety reports. Through Sept. 30, they were charged with more than 603,000 crimes, which led to over 230,000 convictions.

Those convictions include 636 for homicide, 4,025 for sexual assault, 4,074 for other sex offenses, 2,040 for robbery, 463 for kidnapping and 29,993 for assault. And DPS calls those figures a floor: they count only state arrests in Texas, leave out federal charges and miss illegal aliens who never had a prior run-in with DHS.

DPS puts the point plainly: the data "identifies thousands of crimes that should not have occurred and thousands of victims that should not have been victimized because the perpetrator should not be here." That's the whole argument for removal in one sentence. Every criminal alien put on a plane is one fewer threat in an American town.

Why it can't slow down

Washington has already changed the rules. Trump signed the Laken Riley Act, which requires detention of illegal aliens charged with serious crimes, and more than 2,500 287(g) agreements have been signed with state and local law enforcement to work with ICE, the White House said. Lyons testified that those partnerships are up more than 900% since Trump took office.

The officers doing the work are paying for it. DHS says assaults on ICE officers are up more than 1,600%, and Lyons told Congress death threats against ICE personnel rose more than 8,000% in fiscal 2025. Homan says the administration is adding 3,000 more ICE agents and pointed to more than 100 nationwide injunctions and class actions, plus about 85,000 habeas cases, as obstacles slowing removals in the same Fox News interview.

DHS's message to anyone still here illegally hasn't changed. "If you are in the country illegally, LEAVE NOW," Mullin said in September. "If not, we will find you, arrest you, and deport you."