The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) claimed that the Trump administration has arrested nearly 500,000 undocumented immigrants since taking office in January. The information was first provided by the agency's Secretary Kristi Noem on Monday during a press conference in Florida.
"Since January, the Department of Homeland Security has arrested over 480,000 criminal illegal aliens," Noem stated. "Seventy percent of those individuals have criminal charges against them or have been convicted of those criminal charges."
Noem characterized the figure as evidence of the administration's efforts to strengthen border security and prioritize the removal of migrants with criminal records. "Across the country, we're making communities safer so that families can thrive and they can prosper and they can enjoy the kind of freedom that this country was established to provide," she said.
Today marks nine months since @POTUS Trump has been in office. What our law enforcement has accomplished for the American people, under President Trump, is nothing short of extraordinary.
— Secretary Kristi Noem (@Sec_Noem) October 20, 2025
Over 480,000 criminal illegal aliens have been arrested — 70% of those individuals have… pic.twitter.com/4vxJzJWEXV
Speaking at the Manatee County Sheriff's Office in Bradenton, Noem also went on to praise Florida for its cooperation with federal immigration enforcement under the 287(g) program, which allows local authorities to assist Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in identifying and deporting undocumented migrants:
"Florida has been, I think, the state that has provided the most law enforcement agreements under the 287(g) than any other state. It shows that they recognize the importance of bringing individuals to justice that have (been) convicted (of) crimes against the people that live in their communities"
She cited the recent arrests of several individuals in Florida, including Cuban national Erick Carlos Artiles Ramos, convicted of homicide and armed carjacking; Salvadoran national Oscar Alfredo Retana Marroquín, convicted of sexual assault of a child; and Mexican national Arturo Sánchez Morales, convicted of lewd acts with a minor and incest, as Florida Politics reports.
The DHS announcement also follows figures released last month claiming that approximately two million undocumented immigrants have left the United States since Trump took office, including 1.6 million voluntary "self-deportations" and more than 400,000 formal deportations.
The 2 million figure largely aligns with an earlier estimate from the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) and touted by DHS, which found 1.6 million undocumented immigrants had left voluntarily by mid-August. However, CIS cautioned at the time that its numbers may overstate the decline.
Despite Noem's emphasis on arrests tied to criminal activity on Monday, data compiled by Syracuse University's Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) indicates that as of late September, roughly 71.5% of those held in ICE detention had no criminal conviction.
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