Some Migrants Arrested in Trump’s Immigration Crackdown Have Been Released Back Into the U.S.
Julia Ainsley, NBC, February 3, 2025
The Trump administration aggressively publicized the arrests of more than 8,000 immigrants by federal agents since Inauguration Day, with the promise that those detained would be part of a historic mass deportation. But NBC News has learned that some have already been released back into the United States on a monitoring program, according to five sources familiar with the operations.
Since he took office, President Donald Trump and his allies have promoted immigration operations in cities like Chicago and New York, where agents across federal agencies were called in to increase the number of arrests.
But arresting more people inside the United States on allegations of immigration violations means they need to be held somewhere. And significant space constraints in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facilities — and federal court orders forbidding indefinite detention — have forced the agency to release some of those arrested in the roundups rather than hold them until deportation.
ICE posts arrest figures daily on X, but it does not disclose how many of those arrested are released, remain in detention or have been deported.
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Those released are being kept on a monitoring program known as Alternatives to Detention, the five sources familiar with the releases said, which has for more than a decade been used to keep track of where migrants are as they make their way through the immigration system. {snip}
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Trump’s ban on “catch and release” appears to be in effect at the southern border, where few migrants are being processed for asylum claims. But because ICE is funded for only 41,500 beds nationwide, it is still releasing some migrants who were detained in the interior of the country.
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