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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested about 1,400 known or suspected terrorists over the past year as part of a broad expansion of immigration enforcement under President Donald Trump, acting ICE Director Todd Lyons told lawmakers Tuesday.
“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 opening remarks before Congress.
He added that, “From Jan. 20, 2025, through Jan. 20, 2026, ICE conducted nearly 379,000 arrests.” Lyons said those taken into custody included “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 enforcement surge marks a shift from what he described as weakened immigration enforcement under the previous 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.”
He urged state and local agencies to expand participation in the federal 287(g) program, which authorizes certain local law enforcement officers to carry out immigration enforcement functions.
“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,” Lyons 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 ICE has expanded staffing through an unprecedented hiring push, adding more than 12,000 officers and agents in less than a year, following more than 220,000 applications.
The increase in enforcement, Lyons said, has led to rising threats against personnel.
“In fiscal year 2025, death threats against ICE personnel increased by more than 8,000%,” he said, adding that assaults on officers rose by more than 1,400%,” Lyons said.
