ICE Sets Daily Arrest Quotas of 1,200 to 1,500

In late January 2025, the Trump administration directed ICE to raise daily arrest targets to a range of 1,200 to 1,500 people, up from a prior average of a few hundred per day, according to reporting from the Washington Post and other outlets. Field offices were reportedly told to aim for roughly 75 arrests each per day, with managers held accountable for missed targets.

The quota-driven approach marked an early and sharp escalation of the administration's mass-deportation agenda, prioritizing volume metrics over case-by-case review. Advocacy groups and Democratic lawmakers, including Senator Dick Durbin, warned that numerical targets would sweep up long-settled immigrants, family members of U.S. citizens, and other low-priority cases alongside genuine enforcement targets.

The quotas continued to climb over the following months, eventually reaching a stated goal of 3,000 arrests per day by late May 2025, illustrating a sustained shift toward volume-based enforcement metrics.