Since President Donald Trump took office in January 2025, the number of people held in the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention surged almost 75%, according to a recent study by the American Immigration Council.
This escalation in detentions has mirrored an expansion of ICE’s deportation efforts under the Trump administration, where funding has tripled from $9.6 billion in fiscal year 2024 to $28.7 billion in fiscal year 2025. ICE has also experienced the highest federal employment shift in any department, with the number of individuals serving in ICE increasing by 30.5%, while the next highest federal employment change is Customs and Border Patrol at 1.5%. Additionally, the administration has revamped the methods it uses to carry out ICE’s function, employing more workplace raids, collateral arrests, patrols and widespread detainments.
This change in ICE’s implementation has subsequently resulted in the deteriorating of basic fundamental principles and safeguards. By using widespread raids and detaining as many individuals as possible to satisfy Trump’s mass deportation goals, ICE has deported several U.S. citizens without any due process, including a 4-year-old.
ICE mistakenly deported several U.S. citizens, and most of the individuals that ICE has detained haven’t even been criminals, which is one of the main motivations behind Trump’s efforts. According to a report by the Cato Institute, 5% of individuals detained by ICE have had violent criminal convictions, and 73% of individuals detained by ICE have had no criminal convictions at all. With such a small number of individuals actually being criminals, it’s clear that Trump’s expansion of ICE is less about making the U.S. a safer nation and more about disrupting communities and splitting up families in an attempt to reach a political goal.
For example, protests have broken out in several cities across the country, including Atlanta, in the wake of the ICE killing of Renee Good in Minneapolis. What began as an ICE agent not following protocol and coldly murdering a U.S. citizen, which was criticized by many law enforcement professionals, has turned into ICE using excessive force against protestors across the country, revealing the destructive effect that the expansion of ICE has had on the safety of U.S. communities.
Not only has the expansion of ICE been a wasteful use of government funds, it has also threatened key democratic principles. First, the move has stifled democratic engagement by striking fear into American communities; immigrants are scared to live their lives and protestors are scared to stand up for their rights. Additionally, the proliferation of ICE has resulted in unidentifiable officers with masks and unmarked vehicles taking to the streets in the name of enforcing Trump’s goals. This has effectively stripped the term “public servant” of its meaning as ICE employees can no longer be held accountable for their actions, since citizens cannot recognize them as federal agents.
With the number of individuals in ICE detention increasing exponentially, the number of deaths in ICE detention has skyrocketed. 32 people died in custody in 2025, which is the most deaths in ICE detention in over two decades. With record numbers of people being held in ICE detention centers, overcrowding has resulted in unsanitary conditions, inadequate food, poor medical care and widespread neglect of thousands of individuals.
However, while the number of individuals in detention has greatly increased, the number of individuals deported has not increased at nearly the same pace, raising the question of whether Trump’s deportation efforts have been successful, or just a sum of funds funnelled towards destabilizing communities. Despite ICE having a 2025 budget three times greater than the budget in 2024 under the Biden administration, the number of individuals removed from the U.S. in fiscal years 2025 and 2026 combined was only 7% greater than 2024, up from 271,484 individuals removed to 290,602.
Although Trump campaigned on fixing former president Joe Biden’s “loose” border security, the difference in the two administration’s impact seems minimal, even though Trump funneled triple the amount of money to mobilize ICE into a mass public occupation. Ultimately, this shows that the expansion of ICE has not paid off, and has instead used funds to divide families and upend communities across the nation – funds that could have been used to cover SNAP benefits for 6.9 million Americans, cover Medicare costs for 1.6 million Americans, forgive student loan debt for 2.4 million Americans, cover Social Security payments for 1.3 million Americans or make school lunches more affordable for 46.3 million students.
