SECURE OUR BORDERS: DHS Deported Roughly 27,000 Illegal Aliens Last Week

The Trump administration’s immigration enforcement machine appears to be operating at a scale far beyond what most Americans realize, according to new numbers reportedly shared with conservative commentator Benny Johnson by a senior Department of Homeland Security official. The source told Johnson that ICE carried out more than 27,000 deportations in a single week, averaging roughly 3,600 removals per day.

If accurate, those numbers would put the country on pace for approximately 1.4 million deportations over the course of the calendar year, a staggering figure that would represent one of the most aggressive immigration enforcement campaigns in modern American history. The DHS official also reportedly told Johnson that more than 69,000 illegal aliens are currently sitting in DHS detention facilities awaiting removal.

Perhaps most striking is the explanation given for why so few Americans have heard about the scale of this operation. According to the source, agents have shifted to what was described as stealth tactics, operating in plain clothes and using unmarked vehicles across major American cities without alerting local media or, in some cases, even local authorities. The goal, the source said, is to carry out removals quietly and efficiently, without the drama or spectacle that has defined immigration enforcement coverage in the past.

Even more surprising, the DHS official claimed that blue state governors have quietly begun instructing local sheriffs and police chiefs to cooperate with federal agents, handing over criminal illegal aliens to undercover ICE agents behind the scenes even as those same governors publicly criticize the administration’s immigration policies. If true, it would mark a significant and largely unreported shift in how deep blue jurisdictions are actually handling immigration enforcement compared to their public rhetoric.

These numbers, while striking, are consistent with a broader trend that has been building for months. DHS has been releasing near-weekly statements highlighting specific criminal illegal aliens removed from the country, and the pattern in those releases paints a clear picture of an agency operating at full throttle. Recent DHS statements have detailed the removal of individuals convicted of homicide, sexual assault, drug trafficking, burglary, and a long list of other serious crimes.

DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin has repeatedly framed the enforcement surge as central to the administration’s broader public safety agenda. In one recent statement, Mullin noted that as deportations have increased, crime rates across the country have fallen, with the murder rate on pace to reach its lowest level in 126 years. Whether or not the full causal relationship holds up to scrutiny, the correlation has become a consistent talking point for the administration.

The pace of enforcement described by the DHS source to Johnson would represent an escalation even from earlier this year. In October, DHS announced that the administration had already removed more than 527,000 illegal aliens since President Trump returned to office, with more than 1.6 million additional people self-deporting under the pressure of stepped-up enforcement and financial incentives offered to those who leave voluntarily.

That self-deportation program has been one of the more understated successes of the administration’s immigration strategy. DHS has spent money advertising a $1,000 payment along with a plane ticket for individuals who register to leave the country voluntarily rather than face arrest and forced removal. Officials have credited the program with helping drive down the overall number of illegal aliens present in the country without requiring as many resource-intensive enforcement operations.

Border numbers tell a similar story of dramatic change. Southwest border encounters have plummeted compared to the same period in prior years, with some months showing declines of well over 80 percent compared to the final year of the previous administration. Border Patrol has recorded some of the lowest daily apprehension totals in the agency’s history, and for several consecutive months, zero inadmissible aliens were released into American communities, a stark contrast to the tens of thousands released under the prior administration during comparable periods.

Migration through the Darien Gap, once a major pipeline for illegal immigration into the United States from South and Central America, has reportedly dropped by nearly 100 percent, according to DHS. That collapse in movement through one of the hemisphere’s most notorious migration corridors suggests that word of the administration’s enforcement posture has spread well beyond American borders, discouraging would-be migrants before they even attempt the journey north.

Conservatives have pointed to these figures as vindication of the enforcement-first approach that formed the backbone of President Trump’s 2024 campaign.