Taking Stock: Trump Administration Record on Detention and Removals
Published Nov 24, 2025
With the end of the government shutdown, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has just posted new data on the results the Trump administration has achieved from its massive redeployment of government military and civilian personnel to immigration enforcement.
The data show surprisingly little has been accomplished given the huge expenditure of resources devoted to this effort.
Detention: ICE is detaining more and more individuals, but targeting has shifted sharply to individuals without any criminal convictions.
Towards the end of September when ICE last posted detention stats before the government shutdown, a total of 59,762 individuals were being detained. As of November 16, 2025, in the latest ICE posting the number detained had increased to 65,135. Of those currently detained, there are now 47,964 individuals who have never been convicted of any criminal offense. These represent nearly three-quarters of all those detained (73.6%).
During the government shutdown, increasingly ICE targeted individuals with no criminal history. Today ICE is detaining 5,373 more individuals than before the government shutdown. Of these 5,373, there was a net increase of 5,209 more individuals with no criminal history – some 97 percent of the total net increase. Only 3 percent had a criminal conviction even including minor traffic offenses.
| ICE Detention Status | 9/21/25 | 11/16/25 | Change | Percent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Criminal Conviction | 17,007 | 17,171 | 164 | 3.1% |
| No Criminal Conviction | 42,755 | 47,964 | 5,209 | 96.9% |
| Total Detained | 59,762 | 65,135 | 5,373 | 100.0% |
Removals: ICE has just posted how many individuals it has removed since October 1, 2025. This date marks the beginning of fiscal year 2026. ICE reports it removed 56,392 individuals so far in FY 2026.
ICE also posted FY 2025 year-end figures for removals.[1] As TRAC has previously reported, an estimated total of 85,769 of these removals took place while President Biden was still in office,[2] leaving a total of 234,211 removals occurring after President Trump assumed office.
Adding the figures for FY 2025 and FY 2026 together, the total reported number of removals during the Trump administration is just 290,603. This is just 7 percent more than were removed in FY 2024 during the last full year of the Biden administration despite the enormous increase in the resources and government personnel devoted to this effort. See Table 2.
| Period | ICE Reported |
|---|---|
| FY 2024 | 271,484 |
| FY 2025: | |
| Oct 1, 2024-Jan 25, 2025 | 85,769 |
| Jan 26, 2025-Sept 20, 2025 | 234,211 |
| FY 2026: | |
| Oct 1, 2025-Nov 15, 2025 | 56,392 |
| Total Trump Administration | 290,603 |
| Change vs FY 2024 | 7.0% |
The Trump administration continues to conceal most concrete details about its immigration enforcement activities – both on the level of resources the government is devoting to this effort as well as who it is targeting and has actually removed.
The need for public persistence seeking to document ICE’s actual enforcement efforts, its costs, and the results this administration has obtained remains of vital importance.