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.
