The U.S. immigration detention system has broken another record. This week, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) published new data which raises the population in custody to 68,990 people, the highest figure recorded to date.
The number slightly exceeds previous maximumThe number of people detained reached 68,442 on December 13, 2025, confirming a sustained upward trend since the close of the fiscal year in September. Far from being a one-off increase, the data shows a steady expansion of the immigration detention system in recent months.
The growth is explained almost entirely by people without criminal records.
According to the most recent analysis of official data, 92% of the increase in ICE arrests during fiscal year 2026 was due to immigrants with no criminal record. This means they are innocent people who have not committed any crime and whose only violation is immigration-related.
Austin Kocher, a professor at Syracuse University and a specialist in immigration control policies, explained that the increase recorded since the end of the fiscal year is due almost exclusively to this group.
“The growth in the population of people detained by ICE since the end of the fiscal year in September is due almost exclusively to the increase in the number of people detained without criminal charges or convictions,” he pointed Kocher.
This pattern reinforces a trend that had already been noted by researchers and civil rights organizations: the focus of arrests has shifted towards people without a criminal history, many of them with family and work ties in the United States.
Related: More than 50,000 people detained by ICE: the highest number in six years
Who are the so-called “other immigration violators”?
In its official classification, ICE refers to them as “other immigration violators”. These are simply detainees with no criminal record.
Both the agency and President Trump have stated publicly that this category could include individuals who pose a significant threat to public or national security. However, to date, ICE has not presented any data to support this claim, beyond a few isolated examples or anecdotal accounts.
Most of the daily increase also corresponds to people with no prior history
The same trend is observed in the growth of daily arrests. The most recent data shows that the total increase in arrests in a single day reached 11,296 people, and that most of that increase corresponds to people without a criminal record.
Of that increase, 72% is attributed to immigrants without charges or convictions, while 20% corresponds to people who, at most, have pending criminal charges. Only 8% of the increase in arrests during this fiscal year can be attributed to immigrants with criminal convictions. But those offenses don't even have to be serious; they could be convictions for traffic violations.
>>> Where can I locate a person detained by ICE?
A gap between official discourse and the data
The Trump administration has defended the use of aggressive immigration enforcement operations across the country as a necessary tool to address threats to national security and public safety. However, the data available so far do not appear to support that argument.
Kocher was emphatic in assessing this discrepancy:
“The Trump administration continues to portray aggressive immigration enforcement practices across the country as necessary to address threats to national security and public safety. The data available to date do not support these claims.”
The new record number of detainees reflects not only a quantitative increase but also a qualitative shift in immigration enforcement priorities. Increasingly, detentions are focused on individuals whose only conflict with the legal system is their immigration status.
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