ICE detentions hit highest monthly total in June since crackdown began

More than 43,000 people were booked into immigration detention in June, the highest monthly total since President Trump returned to office, newly released Immigration and Customs Enforcement data shows.

The uptick follows increased pressure from the White House on ICE to increase arrests, with agents being instructed to target 2,000 arrests per day, sources inside ICE previously told CBS News. June's arrest total averages out to 1,438 arrests per day, and data for the first 11 days of July averages to 1,593 arrests per day. A DHS spokesperson said ICE does not have arrest quotas.

ICE arrests have continued without the large-scale, highly publicized operations like those previously carried out in Minneapolis, Chicago, Los Angeles and other cities. Monthly arrest totals declined after the Minnesota crackdown, Operation Metro Surge, wound down in February, but have since rebounded.

Even as ICE officers' fatal shootings of two men during vehicle stops in Texas and Maine this month brought a wave of fresh scrutiny on immigration enforcement tactics, administration officials have indicated that the deportation efforts will continue.

"ICE isn't leaving the streets at all," border czar Tom Homan said on Fox News on Monday.

"Numbers were down for a few months because the department was shut down," he told reporters after the interview, referring to a congressional standoff earlier this year over Homeland Security funding.

Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin indicated at his confirmation hearing that his goal was to shift to an enforcement strategy that would keep the agency out of daily news headlines.

Speaking to reporters on Friday, he reiterated that goal and defended the agency's enforcement efforts, boasting that arrests are "hitting single-day records every single day."

"I've turned down the temperature of the stove to try to get it correct without boiling over," he said. "When I say turn down the temperature, I turn down the temperature with you guys. We're turning up the heat on the streets. We're out there working harder than we ever have because we've empowered our law enforcement to do their job."

In the aftermath of the recent shootings, ICE agents were ordered to immediately pause on most vehicle stops. But President Trump quickly posted to Truth Social reversing the order, calling vehicle stops one of the agency's "most important and effective Crime Fighting tools."

"The president made it clear this morning: He wants ICE out there doing their job, and that's what's gonna happen," Homan said in an interview with the Center for I