Back to the explainer

Provenance manifest: ICE immigration enforcement crackdown

Output: index.html in this folder (web version of this manifest: manifest.html). Storyline 3 of storylines-data/trump-administration.json.

Built by outputs/explainer-kit/build.py, which checks every quote and figure below against the fetched article text.

Every piece of text on the page is listed in the order it appears. Headings, labels and instructions are marked as such: they make no claim beyond facts sourced elsewhere on the page.

Two parts of the page are generated straight from the Storylines data and are not listed entry by entry: the chain of five key stories in the header and the Read more list. Both reproduce each article's headline, byline and publication date exactly as the Guardian published them. The line under the title counts the text articles in the Storyline and gives the span of their publication dates.

Header

1In September, Guardian reporting followed the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown through each stage: arrests on the street, detention, the courts, and removal to countries that are not people’s own.

In short

2In short

3The Trump administration’s immigration crackdown has escalated with enforcement “surges” into Democratic-run cities and states, and resulted in a record 50,000 arrests in July alone. Much of it is carried out by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which is overseen by the Department of Homeland Security.

4On a single Sunday, a US citizen was hurt near Chicago when agents reportedly mistook him for someone else, an ICE agent shot a man in Texas, and a man died in Michigan after reportedly trying to flee immigration officers.

5Reports on the rest of the system found detainees held in metal cages,

6court orders to remove children doubling,

7and two deportees in Equatorial Guinea beaten, according to witnesses and lawyers.

Diagram: the system, stage by stage

850,000

9arrests in July alone, a record

10US citizen hurt in arrest attempt, Evanston

11ICE agent shoots man at traffic stop, Austin

12Man dies after reportedly fleeing officers, Michigan

13Stage 1

14On the street

1579

16times guards put Alligator Alcatraz detainees in small metal cages, July 2025 to January 2026

17Guardian reports watchdog findings on cages at Alligator Alcatraz

18Guardian reveals ICE lost count of miscarriages

19Stage 2

20In detention

21Almost 200,000

22children ordered removed by immigration judges since Trump returned to office

23Guardian reports Stephen Miller’s push to remove migrant children

24Stage 3

25In court

2625,000+

27people deported to countries that are not their own since 2025

28Two deportees beaten in Equatorial Guinea, lawyers say

29Appeals court rules third-country removals unlawful

30Stage 4

31Sent away

32Dates on the diagram

33Guardian explainer: the third-country deportation policy

34The system, stage by stage

35The reporting in this Storyline covers each step of the crackdown. Select an event to read about it below.

36Events and Guardian reports in date order, September 2026

1. On the street

37On Sunday 20 September in Evanston, a suburb of Chicago, a witness saw two immigration agents pinning a Black man to the ground, one with a knee on his back, as the man shouted: “I’m a citizen, leave me alone.”

38He was a US citizen. Police said he told them he had head, face and neck injuries; the mayor said he was treated in hospital for minor injuries.

39The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, said officers had “encountered an individual who resembled the target” of an operation, and that he “was not cooperative and refused to identify himself”.

40The same day, in Austin, Texas, an ICE agent shot and seriously wounded a 28-year-old Venezuelan man at a traffic stop while he worked as a DoorDash delivery driver.

41Protesters gathered at the scene to demand transparency.

42In Michigan, authorities are investigating the death of a 36-year-old Guatemalan man who crashed his car into a tree at high speed after reportedly trying to flee immigration officers.

431. On the street

2. In detention

44Two squares drawn to scale. The cage, about 18 square feet, is less than half the 37 square feet ICE requires for a single-person space.

4518 sq ft

46The cage (shaded)

4737 sq ft

48ICE’s own minimum for a single-person space (outline)

49“Alligator Alcatraz”, an immigration jail in the Florida Everglades run by Governor Ron DeSantis’s administration for the federal government, closed in June after a year.

50A report by the Department of Homeland Security’s own inspector general has now found that guards repeatedly locked detainees in outdoor metal cages, a practice it said “does not align with standards for humane treatment”.

51Records showed 79 occasions from July 2025 to January 2026 when detainees were put in the cages, for up to two hours at a time. Staff called them “calming areas” and said detainees asked to spend time in them;

52inspectors found at least one case where a cage was used as punishment.

53DeSantis’s office had dismissed the claims as “fabrications” when Amnesty International first reported them. Responding to the report, its communications manager, Alex Lanfranconi, said the area “adheres to all federal standards for criminal confinement”, adding: “We’d make it even smaller if we could.”

54A separate Guardian investigation found that ICE was detaining a record number of pregnant women. ICE says it has no updated information on miscarriages after 3 October 2025. Lawmakers and lawyers have warned that pregnant detainees are not getting basic prenatal care.

552. In detention

3. In court: the children

56January 2025

577,366

58No monthly figures given for February 2025 to May 2026

59June 2026

6016,200

61July 2026

6216,750

63August 2026

6414,744

65Children ordered removed from the US each month

66Source: analysis by the advocacy group Mobile Pathways of Justice Department immigration court data, shared with the Guardian.

67Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, who is seen as the mastermind and enforcer behind Trump’s anti-immigration agenda, is leading a drive across at least five government departments to speed up the removal of undocumented children, the Guardian has learned.

68Almost 200,000 children have been ordered removed by immigration judges since Trump returned, and such orders have doubled since January 2025. Of the children ordered removed, 70% were under 13.

69Sources warned of a White House push to hurry children in large numbers, without lawyers, before asylum officers and immigration judges who are “either inclined or are under pressure to take a hard line”.

70The White House did not deny that Miller is leading the effort but said it was not new, and framed it as an anti-trafficking effort: agencies are “working to locate and rescue these children”, a spokeswoman said.

713. In court: the children

4. Sent away

72Cameroon: $30m pledged to UN operations there for 1,000 people; 44 sent so far

73Democratic Republic of the Congo: $50m pledged for 2,000 people; 15 received, and flights are on hold because of an Ebola outbreak

74People each deal was meant to cover, and how many the US has sent

75Figures from internal state department records reviewed by the Washington Post as part of the Deportation Project.

76US law bars sending people back to countries where they are likely to be persecuted. Human rights lawyers say the administration gets round this by deporting them to third countries instead, which often send them on to the places they fled.

77The US has struck 35 such deals and pledged at least $410m. About 20,000 people have been bussed to Mexico and at least 5,000 flown elsewhere.

78Equatorial Guinea has taken at least 66 people, and received $7.5m. About 30 are held in a run-down hotel near Malabo.

79On 11 September, according to witnesses and human rights lawyers, two of them, Ahmed Soliman, 31, from Egypt, and Samson Birhane, 47, from Eritrea, were bound, had bags put over their heads, and were beaten and pushed down a flight of stairs. They were taken to a prison. US judges had ruled that both would face persecution or torture if sent home.

80ICE said: “When an individual is no longer in ICE custody, ICE is no longer responsible for them.”

81On Friday 18 September a federal appeals court ruled unanimously that the third-country policy was unlawful, because people were not given enough notice or the chance to challenge their removal. The government has 90 days to appeal and is expected to. The Department of Homeland Security’s general counsel said: “The third country deportation policy continues.”

824. Sent away

Where they stand

83The White House says agencies are “working to locate and rescue” migrant children and reunite them with their families in their home countries.

84The administration says its deportation drive focuses on removing criminals.

85ICE says of those sent to Equatorial Guinea: “All of these illegal aliens were deported to a safe third country.”

86Senator Ron Wyden, a Democrat: “The Trump administration has sacrificed every element of ORR’s child welfare mission on the altar of higher deportation numbers.” (ORR, the Office of Refugee Resettlement, is part of the health department and cares for children who arrive alone.)

87People deported to third countries whom the Guardian interviewed said they had no criminal histories.

88Amnesty International USA said the report on Alligator Alcatraz showed “the horrific treatment of people detained at Alligator Alcatraz was real, not a hoax”.

89Daniel Biss, the Democratic mayor of Evanston: “This violence must end.”

90Where they stand

91The Storyline has no opinion pieces. These are the positions of the people quoted in its reporting.

92What the administration says

93What others say

Checks