How Trump’s ICE enforcement record blows Obama’s – Latest News
The media narrative towards President Donald Trump’s effort to implement immigration law was on full show final week at a White House press briefing.
“Earlier you were just defending ICE agents . . . that they were doing everything correctly,” Niall Stanage of The Hill challenged Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.
“Thirty-two people died in ICE custody last year; 170 US citizens were detained by ICE. And, uh, Renee Good was shot in the head and killed . . . How does that equate to them doing everything correctly?”
An ICE patch and badge are seen on a Department of Homeland Security agent at Royalston Square on January 22, 2026 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Getty Images
Countless information tales have amplified fears that beneath Trump, federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement brokers are wildly violating primary rights.
NPR, to quote only one instance, not too long ago claimed that “many” American residents “have been mistaken” for unlawful immigrants, and that there’s “a long history of immigration agencies not having a good track record.”
But the numbers inform a very totally different story about how ICE is doing beneath Trump.
Let’s set the baseline: Between the president’s Jan. 20, 2025 inauguration and the top of November, Trump’s administration arrested an extraordinary whole of 595,000 unlawful aliens and deported 605,000.
The 170 ICE-detained US residents cited in Stanage’s diatribe included about 130 arrested for interfering with or assaulting officers, in response to the left-leaning ProPublica — justifiable beneath any studying of the law.
Only about 40 or so of those that have been detained claimed to be US residents by chance or erroneously arrested by ICE, and simply half of these people have been held for more than a day; most have been launched in a few hours.
Any error is severe, however 40 errors out of 595,000 arrests quantities to an error price of simply 0.0067% — roughly one wrongful detention for each 14,925 arrests.
Compare that with the ultimate two years of President Barack Obama’s administration.
In fiscal years 2015 and 2016, ICE recorded 263 mistaken arrests, 54 mistaken detentions (book-ins), and 4 mistaken removals.
During these two years, ICE made a mere 239,645 arrests, which means the 54 mistaken detentions alone produced an Obama error price of 0.0225% — about one mistake for each 4,444 arrests.
Overall, the error price beneath Obama was 3.36 occasions greater than beneath Trump.
Unfortunately, there’s no comparable public information for different previous administrations, or the remaining of the Obama years.
As additional proof of ICE’s irresponsibility, Stanage charged that “32 people died in ICE custody last year.”
That declare, nevertheless, misleads with out context; the numbers solely make sense in comparison throughout administrations.
During the course of Obama’s two phrases, from 2009 to 2017, 56 people died in ICE custody.
That administration didn’t publish clear detention totals, however the closest obtainable figures show about 498,646 detentions and deportations over 5 fiscal years, an average of roughly 99,729 per yr.
If that annual price held all through all the administration, ICE processed about 797,834 people.
Under that estimate, 56 deaths interprets into a price of 0.007% — roughly one death for each 14,314 detainees.
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By comparability, the speed final yr beneath Trump was barely decrease: 0.0054%, or one death for each 18,594 detainees.
Both these figures are considerably under the average death price for the detainee age group.
Stanage’s rant omitted one key information level: the quantity of Americans by chance deported.
The purpose for him not doing so is easy — none occurred.
That’s proper, for all of the tumult and fury, ICE beneath Trump made no faulty deportations by November.
By distinction, ICE beneath Obama deported two US residents in fiscal yr 2015, and two more in fiscal yr 2016.
All the media lies and distortions carry disturbing real-world impacts.
Amid the drumbeat of slanted protection, 57% of Americans now disapprove of how ICE enforces immigration legal guidelines, a Quinnipiac University survey discovered this month, with solely 40% saying they approve of ICE’s actions.
Another current ballot, performed by CNN/SSRS, discovered that 51% of adults now say ICE enforcement is making cities much less protected.
The critics’ demonization techniques are making federal brokers’ jobs significantly more harmful.
Assaults on federal immigration officers elevated by 1,347% in 2025, as brokers skilled a terrifying 8,000% surge in death threats.
Car assaults on ICE brokers spiked by 3,200%, The Post studies.
And in simply the previous couple of days, hackers leaked the home addresses and personal figuring out data of about 4,500 staff of ICE and the US Border Patrol — multiplying the dangers to their security.
No federal company is ideal. In immigration enforcement, as in all law enforcement operations, errors might be made.
But the media’s lack of perspective on the information, and its refusal to put the numbers in context, is placing a match to an explosive public debate.
Responsible journalism ought to inform us, not distort actuality — or fuel hostility towards these doing a tough and harmful job.
John R. Lott Jr. is president of the Crime Prevention Research Center. He served as senior adviser for analysis and statistics within the US Department of Justice in 2020-21.
