NEW: Deportations Surge In May, Approach Record Highs

Roughly 30,000 illegal aliens were apprehended by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in June, the highest number of interior deportations tracked by the agency in at least half a decade, when monthly figures were first made public.

The ICE data, which was obtained by NBC News, found that about 30,000 illegal aliens were arrested by ICE in June. This represents a slight uptick from May, when more than 24,000 were detained.

The report from NBC News also includes removal and deportation figures, though it does not distinguish between the two.

According to the most recent data, about 18,000 illegals more than 18,000 illegal aliens were either deported by ICE agents from the interior of the United States or returned to their countries of origin by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents while attempting to illegally enter the United States. The exact number of interior deportations under the Trump Administration — which is widely seen as the most important metric in deportation policy — is still currently unknown.

In total, the administration has stated that more than 250,000 illegals have been removed from the country by federal immigration agents, though that number does not distinguish between interior deportations and illegal aliens turned away at the border.

The numbers are expected to increase dramatically, as the recently-signed Big Beautiful Bill will be increasing ICE funding from $2 billion to more than $70 billion. This includes an additional $45 billion to increase detention space, while $30 billion will be earmarked to hire more immigration agents. Both of these increases are expected to supercharge the federal government’s capacity for interior deportations.

On Monday, White House border czar Tom Homan announced that ICE is shooting for more than 7,000 deportations on a daily basis going forward. That figure would amount to 1.2 million arrests if agents hit their quota every day for the rest of the year.

“And for those that say 3,000 a day is too much, I want to remind them, do the math, we have to arrest 7,000 every single day for the remainder of this administration just to catch the ones Biden released into the nation,” Homan told reporters Monday outside the White House.

In addition to the increased focus on interior deportations, the Trump Administration has devoted a great deal of time and resources to encouraging illegal aliens to “self-deport.” To that end, DHS is offering to pay for return flights, in addition to deals that would allow illegal aliens to keep some of the money they earned in the United States, if they schedule a return trip to their country of origin through the “CBP Home” app.

The app, previously known as “CBP One,” allowed illegal aliens to schedule their own illegal entires into the United States under the Biden Administration.

According to a recent analysis from the Washington Post, more than one-million immigrants and illegal aliens have either been deported or left the country voluntarily since President Trump returned to office this past January.