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Homeland Security hails record high numbers of civil immigration arrests while certain criminal arrests plummet
Alex Woodwardin New YorkTuesday 25 November 2025 15:51 GMTComments
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Federal arrests for drug and weapons crimes have plunged over the last year as Donald Trump’s administration prioritizes immigration raids to support the president’s mass deportation agenda.
Homeland Security officers have arrested more than 94,500 people for civil immigration offenses within the first year of the second Trump administration, according to a review of internal government data from The New York Times.
That marks a dramatic increase compared to roughly 5,000 arrests over the previous fiscal year.
But within that same time period, narcotics arrests dropped by roughly 11 percent, with 15 percent fewer new narcotics investigations opened, internal records show.
The number of weapons seized also fell dramatically. Agents collected 11,200 weapons, compared to 41,400 in the previous year — reflecting a nearly 75 percent drop.
open image in galleryFederal arrests for drugs, firearms and child sex abuse material have plummeted as agencies prioritize Trump’s mass deportation agenda. (AP)Non-public data from Homeland Security Investigations reviewed by The New York Times compares enforcement statistics between October 2024 and September 2025 and the same period from the previous year. That time frame includes roughly four months from the end of Joe Biden’s administration and eight months into the Trump administration.
Homeland Security Investigations — which has historically focused on criminal investigations like smuggling, fraud and trafficking rather than removal operations — is also tasked with dismantling online crime rings that distribute child sex abuse material.
But indictments for those crimes fell by 28 percent, according to The New York Times.
Agents also identified or rescued roughly 300 fewer victims compared to the previous year.
While criminal arrests overall were up by roughly 41 percent, the increase was largely driven by immigration-related actions, including investigations into trafficking. But roughly 12,000 of those 46,000 arrests were not categorized by crime type, making it difficult to determine which kinds of cases accounted for the overall jump in arrests, according to the review.
In a message to Homeland Security employees accompanying the report, agency chief John Condon called the surge in civil immigration arrests a “monumental achievement that underscores your operational impact and commitment to mission.”
But the newly disclosed data reveals some of the wider impacts across law enforcement in pursuit of Trump’s anti-immigration agenda, which has surged federal agents into cities while enlisting thousands of officers from other departments for immigration enforcement.
Customs and Border Patrol agents have been deployed away from the southern border into the country’s interior while the administration is growing the number of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents tasked with deporting people from the country. Those operations also have been supported by agencies from the Drug and Enforcement Administration agents to even the law enforcement arm of the U.S. Postal Service.
More than 28,000 federal law enforcement agents were diverted from their primary duties to focus on immigration, including nearly half of DEA agents and more than two-thirds of agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, according to a recent analysis from the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank.
open image in galleryBorder officers have surged into the nation’s interior while thousands of federal agents have shifted from their duties to support immigration enforcement. (Getty Images)Up to 45 percent of FBI agents working in counterterrorism, cyber, espionage and child exploitation cases were moved to immigration enforcement, according to data collected by the office of Democratic Senator Mark Warner.
The Trump administration, which has set a goal of removing 1 million people a year, has also stripped legal status for tens of thousands of people and directed immigration court judges to ensure immigrants can be swiftly arrested and placed in removal proceedings.
At the same time, nearly three-quarters of people booked into ICE custody within the last fiscal year had no criminal convictions, the Cato Institute found.
Critics have warned that the administration’s government-wide response to immigration — combined with the mass purge of FBI agents and leadership — has left the nation in a vulnerable position and sharply reduced federal law enforcement’s capacity to combat crime.
The Independent has requested comment from Homeland Security.
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