Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin is ramping up immigration arrests, ending a spring lull that followed the shooting deaths of two US citizens by federal agents.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents made 16,213 arrests during the first 11 days of July for a daily average of more than 1,400, according to federal records. That came after a daily average of more than 1,300 in June, when the monthly total of almost 40,000 set a record for President Donald Trump’s second term.
Mullin has deemphasized concentrated enforcement surges such as those carried out in Los Angeles and Minneapolis, where immigration agents shot Renee Good and Alex Pretti in January. The new approach is more spread out but it has again led to killings. This month, federal authorities shot two immigrant men dead: one in Houston and another in Maine.
“It all adds up to even more than they were doing before,” said David Bier, director of immigration studies at the libertarian Cato Institute. “We are seeing behavior that is demonstrably similar to what we saw in Los Angeles, in Chicago and Minneapolis. But it’s diffuse and popping up in Maine at the same time they are popping up in Houston.”
