U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested roughly 50,000 people in August, maintaining the record pace reached a month earlier as the Trump administration continues a nationwide immigration enforcement surge.
The preliminary figure, provided to NBC News by a senior Department of Homeland Security official, is roughly on par with July, which had recorded the highest monthly arrest total of President Donald Trump's second term. Together, the figures indicate ICE made nearly 100,000 arrests over the past two months.
The sustained increase follows a sharp drop in arrests in February and March. Arrests began climbing again in May before reaching record levels in June and July, according to NBC News.
The latest surge has been less visible than enforcement efforts earlier in the year, when Border Patrol agents moved from city to city in large-scale operations that culminated in the shooting deaths of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis. ICE has nevertheless continued making arrests at a similar or higher pace nationwide.
Federal data reviewed by CBS News a few days back provides additional context for the July record. ICE made 49,571 arrests that month, averaging nearly 1,600 per day. More than 800 immigrants without criminal records were arrested on an average day, and people detained solely on civil immigration grounds made up a majority of those arrested for the first time during Trump's second term.
The enforcement push is being supported by a roughly $70 billion funding package approved by the Republican-controlled Congress for ICE and Border Patrol through the end of Trump's term.
The funding has been used to expand detention capacity, including new "turnkey" facilities, while ICE recently signed a $17 million contract to manage operations at a new detention warehouse in San Antonio, according to federal contracting records.
ICE's expanding footprint has also drawn attention ahead of November's midterm elections. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said Tuesday that agents could be deployed to polling sites to respond to specific threats or serve warrants, while saying ICE would not patrol voting locations.
"ICE isn't there to patrol the polling places," Mullin said. "We're there to enforce specific threats."
