DHS official says 7,000 gang members were arrested under the Trump administration

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Evidence from credible sources supports the statement as accurate. Learn more in Methodology.

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enforcement

Official arrest records or DHS reporting substantiate that 7,000 individuals identified as gang members were arrested during the referenced administration/period.

Source summary

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has lodged detainers for three people identified as MS-13 members and charged in the homicide of 14-year-old Jefferson Amaya-Ayala in College Park, Maryland. The suspects—Alam Josai Garcia Padilla, Jose Vladimir Merlos-Majano, and William Ariel Cuellar Guiterrez—are described in the release as criminal illegal aliens from El Salvador; a fourth suspect, a 17-year-old, is also charged. The remains were found in Indian Creek Stream Valley Park and the preliminary investigation says the victim was lured to the park on August 2, 2025. Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin criticized local releases of the suspects and said ICE should have been notified following prior arrests.

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Latest fact check

The claim that a DHS official said “Under President Trump and Secretary Noem, we’ve already arrested 7,000 gang members” is supported by the DHS press release and a separate DHS statement earlier in January 2026 that reports ICE arrested 7,000 gang members in the first year of President Trump’s second term. Verdict: True — DHS publicly made this claim in official press releases; however, independent public ICE/ERO arrest dashboards and annual reports do not openly corroborate the 7,000 figure in a single, downloadable dataset, so the number reflects DHS/ICE’s stated tally rather than an independently verified consolidated count.

Sources

Timeline

Update · Jan 23, 2026, 05:23 AMTrue
The claim that a DHS official said “Under President Trump and Secretary Noem, we’ve already arrested 7,000 gang members” is supported by the DHS press release and a separate DHS statement earlier in January 2026 that reports ICE arrested 7,000 gang members in the first year of President Trump’s second term. Verdict: True — DHS publicly made this claim in official press releases; however, independent public ICE/ERO arrest dashboards and annual reports do not openly corroborate the 7,000 figure in a single, downloadable dataset, so the number reflects DHS/ICE’s stated tally rather than an independently verified consolidated count.
Original article · Jan 22, 2026
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