That number could dramatically change the debate over sanctuary policies.
Mullin’s comments came as the Trump administration continues to emphasize a strategy focused on criminal offenders rather than broad workplace enforcement. He said federal agents are concentrating on people who have already been identified through immigration detainers but were subsequently released by state or local authorities.
Mullin explained that ICE is not simply conducting indiscriminate workplace operations.
“[W]e’re doing it different too. We’re targeting, instead of just going to all of these job sites and raiding these job sites, what we’re doing is we’re focusing on truly the worst of the worst. We’re focused on these detainers that these liberal states are releasing out of prison, meaning these detainers are individuals that [are] in prison, that the states — that are in these sanctuary cities and sanctuary states are releasing back on the streets. When they release them, we go after them.”
Then came the statistic that immediately grabbed attention.
“When we find them, what’s unusual — well, it’s really not that unusual, but when we serve this warrant, they’re usually never by themselves. And so, for every one warrant we’re serving, we’re picking up another 4.2 individuals.”
The distinction matters.
An ICE detainer is a request to a law-enforcement agency to notify federal immigration authorities before releasing a person in custody. Sanctuary policies can restrict or prohibit local authorities from honoring such requests.
Critics of those policies argue that refusing to cooperate forces federal agents to locate individuals after they have already been released instead of allowing ICE to take custody of them directly from a jail or prison.
California provides one of the clearest examples of the broader dispute.
State corrections data show that California placed 137 ICE detainers in February 2026 and that ICE ultimately picked up 127 individuals associated with those detainers. Overall, California reported 2,090 prison releases that month.
Federal and state officials have sharply disagreed over how California handles immigration enforcement.
The Newsom administration insists California does cooperate with ICE and says the state has transferred thousands of people released from state prison into federal custody since 2019. The governor’s office says that figure includes murderers, rapists and other violent offenders.
Federal officials, however, have repeatedly accused sanctuary jurisdictions of releasing criminal illegal aliens despite outstanding immigration holds.
The dispute is not limited to California.
In January, DHS said New York’s failure to honor ICE detainers had resulted in the release of 6,947 criminal illegal aliens since January 20. The department said the group included individuals with homicide, assault, robbery, weapons, drug and sexual-predator offenses.
Illinois has faced similar criticism.
A DHS statement cited in congressional materials said Illinois had released 1,768 criminal illegal aliens after detainers were not honored. The department identified convictions or charges involving homicide, assault, burglary, robbery, drugs, weapons and sexual offenses among those individuals.
Those numbers have become central to the political battle over sanctuary policies.
Supporters argue that state and local police should not be turned into federal immigration agents. Opponents counter that when a person already in government custody has a federal immigration detainer, refusing to cooperate can transform a straightforward jail transfer into a much more difficult manhunt.
That is precisely the problem Mullin says ICE is now confronting.
Instead of taking custody of a targeted individual at a jail or prison, federal agents may have to locate that person somewhere in the community.
And according to Mullin, those operations frequently lead agents to additional arrests.
His 4.2 figure therefore represents more than a statistic in the administration’s argument. It is being used as evidence for the claim that sanctuary policies can make immigration enforcement more complicated and potentially more resource-intensive.
Mullin has framed the administration’s approach as a focus on what he called “truly the worst of the worst.”
Newsmax separately reported that ICE recorded 50,925 arrests of illegal aliens nationwide in August, surpassing the previous monthly record of 50,208 set in July. The department also reported that an operation in New York resulted in 2,197 arrests between July 27 and August 29, including individuals accused or convicted of serious crimes.
That enforcement strategy represents a sharp political contrast with sanctuary jurisdictions that have sought to restrict cooperation with federal immigration authorities.
Mullin’s message is straightforward: if local officials refuse to turn criminal immigration detainees over to ICE, federal agents will eventually come looking for them.
And when they arrive, Mullin says, they are often finding considerably more than the one person they originally targeted.
That is the number sanctuary politicians will now have to answer for: 4.2 additional individuals for every warrant, according to the DHS secretary.
Whether that figure ultimately changes public opinion over sanctuary policies remains to be seen.
But it gives the Trump administration a powerful new statistic to use in an increasingly heated fight over immigration enforcement, public safety and the proper division of responsibility between Washington and sanctuary jurisdictions.
