There has been nearly a 40 percent increase in immigration arrests in 2017 under the Trump administration. Approximately 40,000 people suspected of being present without status have been arrested. These figures were released by the Acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director, Thomas Homan. Approximately 11,000 of those arrested have no convictions, which is more than a 100% increase from last year. Homan claims that this increase is based on officials being “allowed to do their job.” Another view is that the report was made public so as to promote accomplishments despite the growing scandal over the firing of the FBI director and the sharing of intelligence with Russian officials. The backlog of immigration cases in the immigration courts continues to increase.