Noem Says 670,000 Removed in Past Year as ICE Highlights New Arrests Amid Sanctuary, Protest Backlash
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said ICE removed more than 670,000 people in the past year and claimed "north of 2 million" have self‑deported since January 2025, blaming sanctuary politicians and agitators for obstructing enforcement as DHS presses its broader removals narrative. DHS and ICE have publicized a nationwide holiday enforcement surge — including targeted operations in Ohio, California, Minnesota and New Orleans and multiple high‑profile arrests and detainers of individuals accused or convicted of violent and sexual crimes — saying about 70% of those arrested had U.S. criminal convictions, while rejecting Democratic claims of a spike in ICE custody deaths and drawing criticism from state leaders such as Maine Gov. Janet Mills.
📌 Key Facts
- DHS Secretary Kristi Noem told Fox News Digital that ICE removed more than 670,000 people in the last year and said roughly 2.0–2.5 million people have left the U.S. since Trump returned to office—including an estimated ~1.9 million self‑deportations—calling the results a historic 'golden age' for immigration enforcement.
- DHS framed recent enforcement with holiday messaging, calling arrests 'ICE's Christmas gift to Americans' and saying agents are working 'around the clock to ensure silent nights and safer streets,' while DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin described the arrestees as 'the worst of the worst' and 'violent criminal illegal aliens.'
- ICE has carried out a new wave of geographically targeted operations and surges — including 'Operation Catahoula Crunch' in the New Orleans area, 'Operation Buckeye' in Ohio, holiday sweeps in California, and coordinated actions in Minnesota — resulting in the arrests of hundreds of noncitizens (DHS cited roughly 370 in New Orleans, >280 in Ohio and nearly 120 in California during specific pushes).
- DHS/ICE released names and criminal histories for many arrestees, highlighting individuals convicted of serious offenses (murder, child rape, kidnapping, sexual assault, armed robbery, drug trafficking, domestic violence and other violent and sexual crimes); examples named in the releases include Jessupe Sandino Berraza‑Rivera, Luis Enrique Castaneda‑Reyes, Elidelfo Castro‑Nava, Juan Emerson Gomez‑Sorto and Jesser Sandoval‑Cruz, and ICE said some had final deportation orders dating back decades.
- DHS told Fox that about 70% of people arrested by ICE have U.S. criminal convictions or pending charges, and acknowledged it does not know how many of the remaining roughly 30% are wanted for crimes abroad or by INTERPOL.
- The enforcement campaign prompted political backlash: sanctuary leaders and some governors (e.g., Maine Gov. Janet Mills) warned ICE actions are 'not welcome' and cautioned against broadly targeting communities such as Somali‑Americans; at the same time Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats said 30 immigrants have died in ICE custody since Trump took office, a claim DHS disputed — Assistant Secretary McLaughlin called the charge data‑twisting, said ICE’s custody death rate is about 0.00007% with 'NO spike,' and defended detention care standards.
- Administration and DHS/ICE officials publicly defended the operations — ICE Director Todd M. Lyons and the White House praised agents and framed arrests as public‑safety wins, Karoline Leavitt called offenders 'sick people,' DHS posted photos of deportation flights, and Noem accused 'sanctuary politicians and agitators' of obstructing enforcement and warned such obstruction can be a federal crime.
📊 Analysis & Commentary (7)
Christmas Gift Offer
"A skeptical opinion piece that critiques DHS/ICE’s holiday‑themed public relations — dubbing enforcement arrests a 'Christmas gift' and touting 2.5 million departures — arguing the rhetoric masks questionable data, political motives, and civil‑liberties implications."
Trump’s incomplete immigration crackdown
"The Politico analysis critiques the Trump administration’s immigration 'success' claims—matching reporting on DHS’s 2.5M departures—arguing enforcement figures are overstated, operationally constrained, legally and politically risky (notably the birthright‑citizenship fight), and have produced fear and confusion in immigrant communities."
Trump’s Texas troubles
"The piece argues that Trump’s signature policies — especially aggressive immigration enforcement and economic moves that depress oilfield employment — are starting to harm the Texas economy and unsettle Hispanic voters, creating political risks for Republicans in 2026 despite the state’s still‑strong headline metrics."
My Ideology: Citizenism
"A nationalist‑leaning opinion piece arguing that recent Trump‑era immigration enforcement vindicates a new 'citizenism' ideology: public policy should explicitly prioritize citizens’ rights, safety and benefits over noncitizens through firmer deportation, vetting and enforcement measures."
The Heritage Americans Have Already Been Replaced
"A City Journal opinion argues that the cultural and demographic 'replacement' many debate is already happening and that recent DHS/ICE data and enforcement actions illustrate a deeper crisis of American identity that elites refuse to confront, urging tougher, identity‑focused policy responses."
It’s Not My Heritage That Makes Me American
"An opinion piece asserting that American identity is civic rather than ancestral, criticizing the Trump administration’s Minnesota‑centred immigration enforcement and anti‑migrant rhetoric (especially toward Somali and refugee communities) as unjust, damaging to families and democracy, and urging due‑process, oversight and more humane policy responses."
The immigration election
"A Politico Playbook opinion piece arguing that the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement is being weaponized as an electoral theme — it rallies the GOP base and produces headline 'wins' but also generates legal pushback, community outrage and risks among swing voters that could make immigration a risky centerpiece of the 2026 campaign."
📰 Source Timeline (10)
Follow how coverage of this story developed over time
January 20, 2026
7:25 PM
Noem digs at agitators, sanctuary politicians in touting ICE mission continues 1 year into Trump's second term
New information:
- DHS Secretary Kristi Noem told Fox News Digital ICE has removed 'more than 670,000' people in the last year and claims 'north of 2 million' people have self‑deported, describing this as 'just the beginning of the golden age of America.'
- Noem explicitly accuses 'sanctuary politicians and agitators' of a 'complete lack of cooperation' and says attempts to obstruct ICE are 'a felony and a federal crime.'
- ICE and DHS highlight a new wave of arrests including Uriel Hernandez‑Betancourt (Mexico) convicted of indecent liberties with a child in Moore County, N.C.; Parede Zuniga (Guatemala) convicted of cocaine distribution in Fairfax County, Va.; Lucio Valdovinos (Mexico) convicted of domestic violence and multiple DUIs and disorderly conduct in California; and Lorenzo Aviles‑Macedo (Mexico) convicted of inflicting corporal injury on a spouse and DUI in Los Angeles.
- DHS tells Fox that 70% of people arrested by ICE have U.S. criminal convictions or pending charges, and concedes that for the remaining 30% it does not know how many are wanted for crimes abroad or by INTERPOL.
January 16, 2026
6:27 PM
Maine Gov. Mills: ICE provocations are ‘not welcome’ as possible operation looms
New information:
- Maine Gov. Janet Mills says she has received no confirmation or denial from the Trump administration about reports that ICE agents could arrive in Maine 'as soon as next week.'
- Mills publicly warns that if ICE plans 'provocative actions' or to deprive people of civil rights in Maine cities, 'they’re not welcome here.'
- Trump recently told the Detroit Economic Club that 'Somali scams' are happening 'in Maine, too,' echoing his administration’s focus on alleged Somali‑run fraud in Minnesota.
- Mills, a former district attorney and state attorney general, says she welcomes concrete evidence of fraud but condemns targeting an entire Somali‑American community as discriminatory and, in her view, unconstitutional.
January 10, 2026
10:59 PM
ICE arrests in Minnesota surge include numerous convicted child rapists, killers
New information:
- ICE released a detailed list to Fox News naming specific noncitizens arrested in the Minnesota surge, including Laotian nationals Sriudorn Phaivan, Tou Vang, Chong Vue, Ge Yang and Pao Choua Xiong.
- The article lays out each named individual’s criminal history, including child rape, strong‑arm sodomy of boys and girls, kidnapping with intent to sexually assault, procuring a child for prostitution, aggravated assault with a weapon, strangulation, and a long list of property and fraud offenses.
- ICE Director Todd M. Lyons states that some of these individuals have had final deportation orders for up to 30 years and accuses local politicians of 'staged political theatrics' and ignoring the safety benefits of ICE arrests.
- White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt publicly praises ICE agents on X and calls the offenders 'sick people,' while DHS posts a photo of a deportation plane captioned 'Lawbreakers going wheels up in Minneapolis.'
January 08, 2026
3:55 PM
DHS targets ‘worst-of-the-worst’: Christmastime sweep nets sexual predators, drug kingpins
New information:
- Details a specific DHS/ICE surge called 'Operation Buckeye' in Ohio, where more than 280 criminal noncitizens were arrested, including individuals convicted of assaulting a police officer, drug trafficking and firearms offenses.
- Reports that in California, during Dec. 26–31, DHS arrested nearly 120 additional noncitizens convicted of crimes including sexual offenses against children, domestic abuse and serial drunk driving as part of the same holiday enforcement push.
- Names several individuals and their prior convictions (e.g., Emanuel Guijosa-Nonato, Wilmar Edgardo Lozano-Alcantara, Juan Perez, Rogelio Sanchez-Hidalgo) as examples of arrestees in the surge.
- Quotes Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin blaming California Gov. Gavin Newsom and 'sanctuary politicians' for attracting 'criminal illegal aliens' and provides a rebuttal quote from Newsom spokesperson Diana Crofts-Pelayo criticizing DHS operations.
- Clarifies that these raids are part of a broader series of geographically targeted ICE/Border Patrol operations begun earlier in 2025 in cities like Los Angeles and Chicago.
December 28, 2025
3:28 AM
'Unlucky' Honduran woman arrested after allegedly running red light and crashing into ICE vehicle
New information:
- Reports a specific incident in Slidell, Louisiana, where a Honduran national allegedly ran a red light and crashed into an ICE vehicle, leading to her arrest with no reported injuries.
- Identifies 'Operation Catahoula Crunch' as an ICE/DHS enforcement effort in the New Orleans area, with DHS stating that targets include individuals previously arrested for home invasion, armed robbery, grand theft auto and rape.
- Cites DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin saying ICE has apprehended approximately 370 people in the New Orleans area under the operation as of a Dec. 18 update.
- Restates and contextualizes DHS’s national figures that more than 622,000 individuals have been deported in 2025 as of Dec. 19 and that about 2.5 million illegal immigrants have left the country, including an estimated 1.9 million self‑deportations since Trump’s renewed immigration crackdown.
December 21, 2025
2:14 AM
ICE lodges detainer for illegal immigrant charged in brutal killing of New York taxi driver
New information:
- Identifies Santos Paulino Vasquez-Ramirez, an illegal immigrant from Guatemala, as the suspect charged with murder and robbery in the Dec. 1 killing of New York taxi driver Aurelio Zhunio-Orbez in Brewster, New York.
- Reports that ICE has lodged an immigration detainer on Vasquez-Ramirez and that DHS says he will be transferred into federal custody so he is 'never allowed back into American neighborhoods.'
- Provides biographical and immigration-history details: Vasquez-Ramirez illegally entered the U.S. in 2013, was released under the Obama administration, and received a final order of removal from an immigration judge in early 2016.
- Gives specific description of the crime circumstances: alleged strangling of the taxi driver during a fare dispute, with the victim’s body later found floating in the Croton Falls Reservoir on Dec. 7.
- Includes new, on‑the‑record quotes from DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin explicitly blaming 'open border policies' and tying this homicide to the administration’s 'worst of the worst' immigration-enforcement campaign.
12:36 AM
DHS fires back at Senate Dems over ICE detainee death claims: 'Trying to twist data'
New information:
- Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats, via their official X account, claimed that 30 immigrants have died in ICE custody since Donald Trump took office and asserted that 2025 is the deadliest year in ICE detention since the early 2000s.
- DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin publicly rejected that characterization on X, accusing Senate Democrats of 'trying to twist data to smear ICE law enforcement.'
- McLaughlin stated that ICE death rates in custody are '0.00007%' and said there has been 'NO spike in deaths' compared with the past decade.
- She asserted that ICE detention provides a 'higher standard of care' than most U.S. prisons and claimed that for many detainees it is 'the best healthcare they have received their entire lives.'
- The article ties the rebuttal to DHS’s recent messaging that ICE’s latest arrests of serious offenders are a 'Christmas gift to Americans,' framing critics’ death‑rate claims as part of a broader political attack on ICE.
December 20, 2025
4:51 PM
DHS boasts about deportations, calling them 'ICE's Christmas gift to Americans'
New information:
- DHS issued a holiday‑themed statement calling recent ICE enforcement activity 'ICE's Christmas gift to Americans' and saying agents are working 'around the clock to ensure silent nights and safer streets.'
- On Thursday, ICE carried out arrests of five named noncitizens with prior serious convictions — including burglary, bank robbery by force, aggravated kidnapping, and aggravated assault — from Chile, Colombia, Mexico, El Salvador and Honduras in multiple U.S. jurisdictions.
- DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said these individuals are among the 'worst of the worst' and described their removal as delivering 'the best Christmas gift for American families: safer communities.'
- The article reiterates DHS’s claim that more than 2.5 million people here illegally have left the U.S. since Trump returned to office and explicitly ties these arrests to the administration’s claim of 'the most secure border in American history.'
- Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is quoted praising Trump’s first year back in office as delivering 'some of the most historic and consequential achievements in presidential history.'
4:51 PM
DHS packages latest ICE arrests as 'Christmas gift to Americans'
New information:
- Provides full identities, nationalities, and mugshots of the five individuals highlighted by DHS: Jessupe Sandino Berraza-Rivera (Chile, South American Theft Group member, burglary conviction in Santa Ana, California); Luis Enrique Castaneda-Reyes (Colombia, 10 criminal convictions including bank robbery by force and violent drug and machine-gun offenses in the District of New Jersey); Elidelfo Castro-Nava (Mexico, aggravated kidnapping and aggravated assault resulting in serious bodily injury in Salt Lake City, Utah); Juan Emerson Gomez-Sorto (El Salvador, aggravated assault in Price, Utah); and Jesser Sandoval-Cruz (Honduras, assault of a family/household member in Harris County, Texas).
- Adds DHS’s specific 'Christmas gift to Americans' messaging, including the quote that ICE is working to ensure 'silent nights and safer streets.'
- Includes additional quotes from DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin emphasizing that the arrestees are 'violent criminal illegal aliens' and characterizing them as 'the best Christmas gift for American families.'
- Reiterates DHS’s claim that more than 2.5 million illegal immigrants have left the U.S. since January 2025 and frames this as producing 'the most secure border in American history,' with a promotional quote from Secretary Kristi Noem about 'historic and consequential achievements.'