President Donald Trump’s ICE detained a record number of pregnant women, cancer patients, and disabled people during the first seven months of his second term, new government data reveals.
The figures—analyzed by PunchUp, the Daily Beast’s investigations Substack publication—are drawn from 505,000 ICE I-213 arrest forms released by The Guardian last Friday following litigation by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.
Trump, 79, had repeatedly promised his second-term immigration crackdown would target “the worst of the worst.” Instead, PunchUp‘s analysis shows agents hauled in 21 cancer patients, seven organ transplant recipients, at least 24 disabled people—including the blind, deaf, and paralyzed—and 130 pregnant women between January and July last year.
Last week, PunchUp revealed that the same dataset showed ICE doubled its daily arrest rate the second Trump took the oath of office. Now PunchUp can show how that surge in arrests led to vulnerable groups being targeted.
Among the most damning findings is the detention of so many pregnant women, some heavily so. Trump’s ICE arrested an average of 17 expectant mothers a month in 2025—nearly six times Biden’s 2024 monthly rate, the outlet found. Of the 130 pregnant women arrested, 85 had no criminal charges, nearly three times as many pregnant women with no criminal records as Biden arrested in his entire final year.
One of the most tragic entries uncovered by PunchUp belongs to a 17-year-old Honduran teen listed on her I-213 as a student, picked up by ICE in Orleans Parish, Louisiana. She was 32 weeks pregnant—eight months. She had no criminal charges. Her only listed immigration violation was entering the United States without admission. ICE processed her for a final removal order anyway.
Other verbatim notes from the forms detailed by the outlet include a 25-year-old Venezuelan woman described as “complaining of abdominal pain” while 32 weeks pregnant, and one woman described as “approximately 10 months pregnant”—meaning full-term.
The form filed about a 29-year-old Guatemalan mother of two U.S. citizens records one further chilling detail. She told her transport officer she might be pregnant; the form notes the officer “used only handcuffs for restraints.” The word “only” suggests that the default restraint is worse, amid previous concerns about the use of shackles and full-body restraints.
The detention of the seven organ transplant recipients—who depend on daily drugs to stop their bodies destroying the donor organ—is also shocking. Across Biden’s entire term, that number was zero.
In Atlanta, a 37-year-old man was arrested while taking transplant-rejection medication and, in the ICE agent’s own words, “going to regularly scheduled follow ups with Emory Hospital,” one of America’s top kidney-transplant centers. In Yakima, Washington, a 59-year-old kidney transplant patient brought a letter from his transplant medical director to his ICE check-in, but agents still took him away.
At least 22 of those arrested in 2025 had cancer. One was a 44-year-old Honduran mechanic—and father of six American children—picked up at the Hinds County, Mississippi jail just 19 days after Trump took office. The form filed about him states he had been in treatment for throat cancer, but had not taken his medication since being in jail.
ICE offered him a phone call to his brother, asking him to bring the medication to the field office. The brother was at work and could not come. The man was processed for removal regardless.
Disabled detainees included nine amputees, seven blind people, seven deaf people, and two paralyzed individuals. HIV-positive arrests jumped nearly fivefold under Trump, while tuberculosis cases also rose.
The White House referred a request for comment from the Daily Beast to DHS, which did not respond.
