Federal immigration detention centers are filled to the brim, holding roughly 53,000 illegal migrants under Trump administration’s latest push — in what some ICE sources say is an “unsustainable” pace of arrests considering current funding.
The current number of illegal migrants in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody is beyond what is funded by Congress, and sources say more facilities are going to be opening to continue to expand the number of available detention beds.
In fiscal year 2024, Congress funded roughly 41,500 ICE detention beds at a cost of roughly $3.4 billion, according to the American Immigration Lawyers Association. The feds did not reveal the total number of beds they have in the system.
But the agency is continuing to search for additional facilities through private prison contractors and the Department of Defense to make more room for immigrants collared by ICE, sources said.
If Republicans’ “Big Beautiful Bill” passes the Senate, ICE will have $45 billion to expand its detention capacity, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem expressed their frustrations with the pace of arrests to ICE leadership at a May 21 meeting, pushing agents to make a “minimum” of 3,000 arrests per day, according to Axios.
The Trump administration gave ICE a quota of 1,800 arrests per day in January.
As a result, daily arrests jumped from the 1,600 last week to 2,200 this week, sources told The Post.
But the pace of arrests is “unsustainable,” said an agency source.
“It takes hours to process one person illegally in the country, and to be told that what you’re doing still isn’t good enough is killing agents’ morale.”
In recent weeks, the Trump administration has expanded its immigration raids, targeting migrants appearing for regular check-ins with ICE and those leaving immigration courts with final deportation orders.
Masked federal agents were seen Wednesday arresting at least five illegal migrants appearing for appointments near Federal Plaza in Lower Manhattan, photos showed.
Masked federal agents were seen Wednesday detaining at least five illegal immigrants who were exiting an Intensive Supervision Appearance Program office near Federal Plaza in Lower Manhattan, photos showed.
Last week, as many as 10 migrants were detained while leaving the federal immigration courthouse at 26 Federal Plaza.
Another 16 immigrants were detained from a nondescript office building in the same area Tuesday afternoon, The City reported.
