ICE Arrests Hit a Third Straight Monthly Record This Summer, and Most of Those Arrested in July Had No Criminal Conviction

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested 50,925 people in August 2026, according to the Department of Homeland Security — the third month in a row that the agency has set a new monthly arrest record, after 50,208 arrests in July and roughly 43,900 in June, both DHS’s own figures for those months. But separate Deportation Data Project data show a change in the makeup of ICE’s July arrests: nearly three-quarters of the people ICE took into custody that month had no criminal conviction, up sharply from a year earlier.

Key facts

August 2026: ICE arrested 50,925 people, DHS’s third straight monthly record, after 50,208 in July and roughly 43,900 in June.
July 2026 conviction data: 73.5% of those arrested had no criminal conviction, up from 62.6% a year earlier, per the Deportation Data Project.
Texas and Florida: The Deportation Data Project comparison identified them as having the largest raw arrest totals, with increases in both states from a year earlier.
287(g) agreements: about 2,000 state and local agencies now participate, letting local police make immigration arrests or hand people to ICE.
Count gap: DHS’s July figure (50,208) and the Deportation Data Project’s July count (about 49,571) differ by roughly 600; neither side has explained why.

A change in tactics

The record numbers coincide with a reported change in tactics. Rather than the large, publicized raids that drew national attention earlier in the Trump administration, reporting this summer describes ICE leaning more on street-level arrests, traffic stops, and partnerships with local police and jails; sweeps were reported in Houston, New York, Memphis, San Francisco and Atlanta.

The 287(g) program

That cooperation runs through a federal program called 287(g), which lets local police make immigration arrests or hand people already in custody over to ICE. About 2,000 state and local law enforcement agencies have now signed 287(g) agreements. Two examples show how fast that network has grown: in Missouri, the number of local agencies with such agreements rose from zero in 2024 to 130 by this summer; in Ohio, it rose from zero to 20 over the same period. The Deportation Data Project separately found that ICE requests asking local jails to hold people on its behalf also rose over the same period.

Multiple news outlets have also reported that ICE field offices are now working toward an internal target of roughly 2,000 arrests a day. DHS has not confirmed the figure or said when any such target took effect.

What DHS says

The record-arrest numbers come from DHS itself. Announcing the August figure on September 2, 2026, DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said: “For the third straight month, ICE set a new record for the highest number of illegal aliens arrested in a single month, nearly 51,000. This is promises made and promises kept in action.” DHS’s own releases about the record totals do not publish a breakdown of the criminal-conviction status of everyone arrested.

What the conviction data shows

That second number — the conviction data — comes from a different, independent source: the Deportation Data Project, a research effort led by UC Berkeley law professor David Hausman and based at UC Berkeley Law, working with UCLA’s Center for Immigration Law and Policy. It obtains ICE’s own arrest-by-arrest records through Freedom of Information Act lawsuits, not from anything DHS publishes voluntarily. Comparing July 2026 with July 2025, the project found:

No criminal conviction: 73.5% of people arrested in July 2026, up from 62.6% in July 2025. This describes conviction status; it does not by itself establish that a person committed no crime.
Nonviolent-crime conviction: 24.8% in July 2026, down from 34.5% in July 2025.
Violent-crime conviction: 1.6% in July 2026, down from 2.9% in July 2025.

The July comparison shows a higher share of arrestees with no criminal conviction than a year earlier; separately, DHS reported record monthly arrest totals in June, July and August. DHS has, in earlier 2026 disputes over similar Deportation Data Project findings, dismissed the data as “cherry picked”; it has not specifically addressed the July 2026 figures cited here.

Texas and Florida saw the biggest increases

The two states with the biggest jumps were Texas and Florida. The same Deportation Data Project comparison found Texas and Florida had the largest raw arrest totals, and both states saw year-over-year increases.

DHS highlights serious cases

DHS’s own public messaging has focused on serious cases rather than the broader statistics. Its September 2 release cited convictions for crimes including murder, sexual assault of a minor, child pornography, DUI manslaughter and fentanyl distribution conspiracy among August’s arrests, though it did not name individuals. DHS also touted “Operation Rotten Apple,” a New York enforcement push that ran from July 27 to August 29 and that DHS said led to 2,197 arrests statewide, describing those arrested as including “murderers, rapists, pedophiles, drug traffickers, and violent assailants” — a characterization no outside source has independently checked. That operation covers only New York, not the arrests nationwide: the national figures above show that most people ICE arrested nationwide in July had no conviction at all.

An unresolved gap between the counts

There is also a gap the two organizations counting arrests have not resolved. DHS’s own July figure is 50,208. The Deportation Data Project’s independently obtained count for the same month, reported in late August, came to about 49,571 — roughly 600 lower. Neither organization has said why the two totals, drawn from different counting methods, don’t match. For now, that gap is unexplained, not settled.

What happens next

As of September 13, 2026, no ICE arrest figures for September had been released, so it isn’t yet known whether the streak of monthly records will reach a fourth month.