Georgia ICE arrests rise 50% in July, hit new Trump record

The number of Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests topped 2,000 in Georgia in July — a new high for the Trump administration as it carries out its policy of mass-scale deportations.

The roughly 2,250 Georgia ICE arrests in July marked an increase of 50% relative to the over 1,500 monthly arrests registered in May and June, the previous high-water marks since President Donald Trump’s return to the White House, according to updated federal data.

Over the summer, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reviewed videos of immigration arrests and spoke with immigrant community members and leaders who described an intensifying wave of arrests targeting immigrants during traffic stops, at gas stations and at construction worksites.

“They have taken a lot of people from here,” Marietta resident Luz Tagle told the AJC in Spanish following the early July arrest of her husband, Jovanny de Jesús Pineda, who was apprehended on his way to a landscaping job.

For its analysis of ICE’s evolving performance in Georgia, the AJC relied on an immigration arrests data set obtained from the federal government through a lawsuit by the Deportation Data Project, a group of lawyers and researchers at the University of California, Berkeley law school. The publicly available data set captures ICE apprehension data through Aug. 6.

Georgia’s soaring ICE arrest numbers are reflective of a national trend.

According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which includes ICE, the administration’s 50,208 immigration arrests across the country in July set a record. That record was broken once again in August, DHS said, with 50,925 immigrants apprehended. State-by-state data for the full month of August is not yet publicly available.

“The hard-working men and women of DHS continue to break records as they defend the homeland and protect the American people,” said DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin in a statement. “This is promises made and promises kept in action. Under President Trump’s leadership, ICE is working around the clock every day to arrest and deport illegal aliens from American communities.”

The monthly pace of immigrant arrests currently set by federal authorities marks a significant departure from the Biden administration.

The 2,256 Georgia ICE arrests in July 2026 represent more than 11 times the number of Georgia ICE arrests in July 2024 (194).

The scale of ICE activity and enforcement in the state is worrying immigrant advocates.

“Georgia should be a home where families live with safety and dignity,” said George Escobar, executive director of advocacy organization We Are CASA, adding: “We demand our elected representatives stand up, refuse local law enforcement collusion, and push immediately for full federal oversight and accountability over ICE operations in our state.”