The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) published a report a month ago based on its analysis of figures that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had been publishing semi-monthly without fanfare for a number of years. ICE was and is currently required to publish these figures under provisions of the annual Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Acts Congress has passed. TRAC compiles many of these numbers on its QuickFacts page and provides detailed time series going back to October 2018 for these.

In this report we analyze the more recently posted numbers — updated through March 8, 2025 — to assess how this administration’s record on daily arrests and removals now compares with that of former President Biden during his last full year in office (FY 2024).

Removals: President Trump’s removal record is growing worse with time rather than improving. Despite deploying staff from other agencies to assist in enforcement activities and ordering active-duty military to facilitate removals at the border, daily removals have still failed to reach even the levels achieved by the previous administration.

Trump’s daily removals during the period of January 26-February 8 averaged just 693. This is 6.5 percent below the higher daily average of 742 under former President Biden. Now with an additional four weeks (28 days) added to the monitoring period, Trump’s daily removals for the period January 26 through March 8 averaged only 661 removals each day. This number is not only below its initial removal rate, but 10.9 percentage points lower than Biden’s daily average for FY 2024.

Arrests: During FY 2024 an average of 759 noncitizens each day were booked into ICE detention facilities following an arrest under Biden’s administration. During the initial period at the end of January (January 26-31), ICE book-ins following arrests jumped to a daily average of 1,126. However, ICE was not able to sustain this level so that in the following period ICE book-ins following arrests fell to just 724 per day.

The pattern of arrest activity shows another uptick in arrests during the last week in February when daily arrests again climbed above Biden’s (909 daily arrests compared to Biden’s 759). But this has again fallen during the March 1-8 period to its lowest level of just 718 daily arrests – 5.4 percent lower than Biden’s record.

Over the entire cumulative period of January 26 through March 8 and with a great deal of additional personnel from other agencies assisting ICE has managed to bring its average cumulative arrest daily average to 812 – a figure that is indeed 7.0 percent higher than Biden’s record during FY 2024. But Trump’s arrest pattern is highly erratic since the most recent period in March actually showed its lowest daily average thus far.

A number of announced moves already taken by the Trump administration should make it easier to remove countless more immigrants in the future. However, actually carrying out ever greater arrests and deportations may still pose significant challenges. Thus, just what will actually occur in the future remains uncertain.