The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) issued on May 15 a report which evaluated the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement claims during its first 100 days in office and compared them with the actual enforcement levels under Biden during Fiscal Year 2024. The TRAC report focused on two measurements: the volume of arrests and the volume of removals (i.e. deportations).

On April 28, 2025, the Trump administration claimed it had arrested over 151,000 and deported over 135,000 immigrants in its first 100 days—alleging this had already surpassed the entire total for FY 2024. In reality, Trump’s actual removals numbered only 72,179 Actual arrests totaled 76,212, just half of the stated 151,000.

Under Biden in FY 2024 removals totaled 271,484 and arrests totaled 277,913. Under Biden, there were an average of 759 arrests and 742 removals per day; under Trump, 778 arrests and 737 removals per day.

DHS and ICE have withheld timely data and suspended regular statistical reports. TRAC’s data came from the very large TRAC data repository used to publish ICE statistics semi-monthly.

Who is Being Arrested?

TRAC’s May 15 report did not provide any numerical breakdown of what types of people were arrested or deported. An April 14 TRAC report suggests relatively very few are convicted criminals.  Among those “detained” by state and local law enforcement agencies only 29% had a criminal record. My guess is that as ICE increases the scope of its activity, a very small percentage will have criminal records. This creates a challenge for ICE to continue to portray its work as focusing on criminals.

How TRAC gets data

The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse systematically utilizes the Freedom of Information Act to obtain data from federal agencies, including those involved in immigration enforcement, such as ICE and the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR).