Following a intense public backlash over aggressive immigration raids, the Trump administration has shifted its enforcement tactics from high-profile "sieges" to a quieter, stealthier approach. Despite the lower public profile, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is now detaining more immigrants than ever before, embedded deeply within the routines of everyday life across the United States.
Those who experienced the previous wave of enforcement described it as an occupation. At the height of the raids last year, ICE agents in armored military vehicles patrolled residential neighborhoods, stationed themselves outside elementary schools, and arrested pedestrians on public streets. However, after federal officers killed two US citizens during an enforcement operation in Minneapolis, the administration faced severe public pushback and promised a change in strategy.
In February, Donald Trump remarked, "I learned that maybe we could use a little bit of a softer touch." He subsequently appointed Markwayne Mullin as the Secretary of Homeland Security. Confirmed by the Senate on March 24, 2026, Mullin promised to reduce the agency's media profile, stating during his confirmation hearing that his goal was to ensure the agency was not the leading news story every single day within six months. Half a year later, the agency has delivered on that quiet approach, executing arrests rapidly and silently.
Advocates and lawyers describe this new operational style as the "invisibilizing" of immigration enforcement. According to Willis, an academic and legal advocate, detentions are now occurring in a flash, often taking only 90 seconds from the moment ICE officers arrive to the time the individual is driven away. This stealthy approach means many arrests happen entirely out of public view, though they remain highly disruptive to daily life. Immigrants have been detained while taking out the trash in Miami, putting a child on a school bus in Connecticut, pumping gas, or commuting to and from work.
Despite the emphasis on stealth, operations occasionally result in high-profile violence. Recently, an ICE agent in Austin, Texas, shot Wilber Rafael Garcés Pérez, a Venezuelan asylum seeker who had received a deportation order after missing a court appearance letter. Garcés Pérez was discharged from a local hospital with a bullet still lodged near his spine and taken directly into ICE detention. On the same day, a Guatemalan man died in a fiery car crash in Grand Rapids, Michigan, while fleeing federal immigration agents.
In other cases, procedural errors have led to the wrongful detention of individuals. In Phoenix, a Venezuelan native named Y was stopped at Sky Harbor International Airport by officers who refused to explain his arrest or accept documentation of a judicial order prohibiting his deportation. He was placed on a flight to Venezuela but was deboarded just before takeoff when ICE officers admitted they had made a mistake.
Even US citizens have been caught in the dragnet. Last month, 25-year-old Denver-born US citizen Brian José Morales GarcÃa was deported to Mexico. Morales GarcÃa was traveling to his job as an air-conditioning technician when he was pulled over by Gillespie County sheriff's deputies and Texas Department of Public Safety officers, both operating in partnership with ICE. Despite explaining that his birth certificate and social security card were at his home, he was deported. He was only allowed to return to the US after his attorney, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, submitted proof of his citizenship to federal authorities.
Lincoln-Goldfinch noted that the reliance on local police has led to widespread racial profiling, particularly in Hispanic neighborhoods and around construction sites. "People are getting detained if they don’t have their green card on them. They’re getting stopped even if they have legal status," she said, describing how patrol units slowly monitor job sites to arrest workers day after day.
This expanded enforcement capability is supported by $75 billion in funding from Congress. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has more than doubled its workforce this year to over 22,000 officers and staff. The agency has also vastly expanded its reach by collaborating with local police, sheriffs, highway patrol, and fish and wildlife agents. As of September 15, ICE had signed more than 2,500 287(g) agreements allowing local law enforcement to assist in federal immigration actions.
DHS spokesperson Chandler Rebel declined to comment on specific operational strategies, stating that the department does not disclose law enforcement tactics. However, Rebel confirmed a heightened focus on airports, noting that DHS is working to ensure that undocumented individuals can no longer fly unless they are departing the country to self-deport. Rebel also praised the agency's partnerships with local law enforcement, citing "tremendous success" from the collaborations.
To maintain high arrest numbers, the administration has systematically rewritten administrative policies to create new pathways to deportation. Recently, the Supreme Court cleared the way for the administration to end temporary humanitarian protections for 350,000 Haitians and Syrians, while making it easier to terminate protections for 1.3 million immigrants under Temporary Protected Status (TPS). Currently, approximately 170,000 Salvadorans residing in the US are waiting to learn if their protections will be renewed or canceled.
Additionally, the administration has implemented "mega-master" hearings—large-scale immigration court sessions scheduled at the last minute. Because many individuals do not receive notice or are unable to attend, they are ordered deported in absentia. Following the introduction of these hearings, immigration judges issued 53,808 in-absentia removal orders in June, representing a 55% increase from the prior month. More than 13,000 of those orders occurred during mass hearings of 100 or more people, according to data analyzed by researchers Joseph Gunther and Brandon Marrow of the tracking site bklg.org.
Further administrative changes are expected in the coming weeks, including the potential revocation of up to 200,000 business and tourism visas. The administration has also enforced a rule blocking individuals from obtaining lawful permanent residency if they or their relatives utilize public benefits, such as Medicaid, food stamps, or student financial aid. Furthermore, the government has increasingly used "third-country" deportation agreements to expel over 23,000 people over the past year to nations where they have no personal ties, bypassing prior protections for individuals facing torture or persecution in their home countries.
This shifting legal landscape has created immense instability for immigrants and their legal counsel. Many individuals arrested by ICE languish in detention facilities for months. Because federal circuit courts remain split on whether undocumented immigrants and asylum seekers can be detained indefinitely without bond hearings, many choose voluntary deportation over prolonged detention. Lincoln-Goldfinch stated that nearly every detained parent she speaks with faces intense pressure to sign voluntary deportation documents, under the promise that doing so will allow them to return home and retain control over what happens to their children.
Data tracking these community arrests is compiled by the Deportation Data Project, a collaborative research effort by academics and lawyers at the University of California, Berkeley and the University of California, Los Angeles, who monitor federal immigration enforcement patterns.
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