U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested about 1,400 known or suspected terrorists in the past year as part of an aggressive expansion of immigration enforcement under President Donald Trump, according to acting ICE director Todd Lyons.
"Under the leadership of President Trump and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, the men and women of ICE have been empowered to do exactly what they were trained to do: arrest and remove illegal aliens and criminals from our communities," Lyons said in his opening remarks while testifying before Congress on Tuesday.
He added: "From Jan. 20, 2025, through Jan. 20, 2026, ICE conducted nearly 379,000 arrests." He then said that among those taken into custody were "more than 7,300 suspected gang members and 1,400 known or suspected terrorists. ... We have taken these dangerous individuals off our streets, making our country dramatically safer."
Lyons said the arrests reflect a broader shift in priorities following what he described as a collapse of immigration enforcement during the Biden administration.
"In the last year alone, we conducted over 475,000 removals," Lyons said. "We are not just inflating statistics by counting border turnarounds; these are real removals of individuals with no lawful basis to remain in the United States."
Lyons urged local and state agencies to expand cooperation with ICE, pointing to the federal 287(g) program.
"We have supercharged partnerships with state and local law enforcement, empowering officers around the country, under the authorities given to us by Congress through the 287(g) program, to help ICE identify and remove criminal aliens from the United States," he said.
"Those partnerships have increased more than 900% since President Trump took office, and our communities are safer for it.
"We encourage more agencies and departments around the country to partner with us in this noble effort."
Lyons also said the agency has increased its capacity through an "unprecedented hiring campaign" that added "more than 12,000 officers and agents in less than a year, after more than 220,000 individuals submitted applications."
He said the expansion "will further support ICE's ability to execute on the president and the secretary's bold agenda to enforce our laws and remove illegal aliens."
Lyons said ICE personnel face heightened threats as enforcement expands, calling it "the deadliest operating environment in our agency's history."
He said that "in fiscal year 2025, death threats against ICE personnel increased by more than 8,000%," and that "assaults on our officers have skyrocketed by over 1,400%."
But Lyons said the agency will press ahead.
"Despite these perils, our officers continue to execute their mission with unwavering resolve," he said. "And we are only getting started."
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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