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The president Donald Trump announced this Friday on his platform Truth Social that his administration holds the highest average daily arrest rate in history by the ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and the CBP (Customs and Border Protection), surpassing all previous presidents "by a lot."
The White House amplified the message on X that same day, directly quoting the President's words: "The Trump administration has the highest average daily rate of arrests by ICE and CBP, including total detentions with final deportation orders, than any other president, by a wide margin!"
In his post, Trump acknowledged with a hint of irony the tone of the news: "I'm not exactly thrilled to talk about it because it doesn't sound good at all," but he insisted that the data is compelling.
The numbers largely support their claims. The daily average arrest rate of ICE reached a peak of 1,456 arrests per day at the end of January 2026, surpassing the previous historical record of 1,123 per day set by Obama in 2012.
The combined daily average between the ICE and the CBP, from October 2025 to March 2026, was 1,188 deportations per day, compared to the average of 294 arrests per day during the last year of the Biden administration.
The population detained by ICE reached a historic record of 70,766 people on January 24, 2026, marking the first time the agency exceeded 70,000 detainees simultaneously.
In May 2026, nearly 300 deportation flights per month were recorded, the highest since Trump took office in January 2025, with a total of approximately 3,000 flights and nearly 900,000 immigrants expelled since the beginning of the term.
Trump also noted that pending final deportation orders are being delayed by the courts, which he referred to as "also a record." A federal judge in California overturned ICE policies on June 23 that allowed arrests in immigration courts, and a federal court declared illegal on June 5 the policies that paused asylum applications for 39 countries, including Cuba.
The comparative context with Obama is more nuanced. The former president deported a total of 2.74 million people in eight years, averaging 343,713 per year, compared to 935,000 during Trump's first full term. However, the key difference lies in the approach: over 80% of those deported under Obama had criminal records, while under Trump only 29% of current deportees have convictions.
Independent analysts also question the administration's total figures, pointing out that they include "self-deportations" and individuals intercepted before crossing the border, which would artificially inflate the numbers.
Regarding Cubans, Trump has become the president who has deported the most compatriots in the history of the United States, with 1,952 in his second term and 5,337 in total across both terms, according to dossier data. Obama deported only 341 Cubans during his eight years in office.
In his post, Trump also attacked journalists and analysts who compare his numbers to those of Obama, and specifically criticized Fox News host Shannon Bream, whom he called "Milk Toast" for not defending his data with enough vigor: "It would be nice if people like Shannon Bream and others showed a little resistance, just a bit."
There are more than 42,000 Cubans under active deportation orders in the United States, a figure that makes the Cuban community one of the most vulnerable to the immigration policies of the current administration.
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