The Trump administration has aggressively advertised the arrests of almost 8,000 immigrants by federal officials since Inauguration Day, promising that those imprisoned will be part of a historic mass deportation. However, five sources familiar with the activities have told NBC News that some have already been let back into the United States under a surveillance mechanism.
Since taking office, President Donald Trump and his associates have supported immigration operations in places such as Chicago and New York, where officers from several federal agencies were sent in to raise the number of arrests.
However, detaining more people in the United States on immigration infractions requires them to be kept somewhere. Significant capacity limits in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centers, along with federal court decisions prohibiting prolonged detention, have prompted the agency to release some of those caught during the roundups rather than retain them until deportation.
ICE provides arrest data on X every day, but it does not say how many of those apprehended are released, stay in jail, or have been deported.
In a response to NBC News, an ICE representative admitted that federal court judgments limit ICE’s ability to detain immigrants indefinitely if their countries refuse to return them, which may lead to their release.
“The agency’s federal law enforcement officers do everything they can to keep our communities safe,” a spokeswoman told me. “In some cases, ICE is required to release certain arrested aliens from custody.”
According to the five sources familiar with the releases, those released are being monitored under a program known as Alternatives to Detention, which has been utilized for more than a decade to track where migrants are while they move through the immigration system. ICE can track them using ankle monitors, wrist bands, or telephonic check-ins.
When Trump took office last month, he promised to eliminate so-called catch-and-release procedures, which allow migrants apprehended at the southern border to return to the United States while their immigration cases are pending.
Trump’s “catch and release” ban appears to be in force at the southern border, with few individuals being processed for asylum claims. However, because ICE is only paid for 41,500 beds nationally, it continues to release migrants caught in the country’s interior.
In December, Fox News reported that the incoming Trump administration was aware of capacity difficulties in ICE detention and was considering extending the ankle monitor program.
ICE policy prioritizes detention of immigrants believed to be a threat to public safety and permits officers to have discretion when deciding whether to release migrants who do not have major criminal records. There is no evidence that the Trump administration has released anyone convicted of a significant crime.
When deciding who should be detained, ICE officers assess if the immigrants are from nations that refuse to accept them back. Hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans living in the United States, for example, could not be deported and were evaluated for release provided they did not pose a threat to public safety.
On Saturday, Trump claimed that Venezuela had agreed to return its people who had emigrated to the US.
Other detainees may be released for medical reasons or if they are the only caretakers of children, three sources familiar with the decisions said.
