On the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, the Department of Homeland Security says U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has arrested more than 2,150 known or suspected terrorists since President Trump took office and deported over 2,000 of them. DHS gave the numbers directly to Fox News Digital ahead of Thursday's anniversary, and they come with names attached, not just a round figure.

What did DHS actually say?

DHS says ICE arrested more than 2,150 known or suspected terrorists between Jan. 20, 2025, and Sept. 9, 2026, and removed 2,015 of them from the country in that same window. DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin tied the release directly to the anniversary: "As we reflect on the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, the brave men and women of ICE continue to carry out their duty to protect the homeland and keep the American people safe."

Mullin called the anniversary a reminder of the department's commitment to "eternal vigilance." That word choice is not an accident. DHS was created in 2002 specifically because 9/11 exposed how badly separate federal agencies were talking past each other on exactly this kind of threat, and ICE was stood up the following year to fill that lane going forward: finding and removing people in the country illegally who pose a danger to the public.

The figures also land in the middle of an argument DHS has been having with its critics all year. Border czar Tom Homan has repeatedly pushed back on progressive calls to defund or abolish ICE outright, pointing to record arrest and removal numbers as his answer. In a Fox News interview tied to this same announcement, Homan said seventy percent of those ICE has detained under the current administration are convicted criminals, and credited the agency with rescuing more than 150,000 smuggled children. DHS clearly wants those two threads, the abolish-ICE debate and the terrorist-deportation count, read together this week.

Who are the "known or suspected terrorists" DHS is counting?

DHS pointed reporters to several specific cases rather than leaving the number to speak for itself. The one getting the most attention: Abraham Hermosillo Alvarez, a 31-year-old Mexican national living in Omaha, Nebraska, who the FBI arrested June 14 as the alleged "ringleader" of a plot to attack the UFC Freedom 250 event at the White House.

Alvarez had overstayed a B2 visitor visa that expired in December 2001 and later received DACA status in 2014. According to a Justice Department indictment, he went by "Shepherd" in encrypted group chats where the plan allegedly called for explosive-laden drones to force an evacuation, followed by snipers targeting the fleeing crowd, including President Trump, Vice President Vance, the Prime Minister of Israel and Elon Musk.

Alvarez was not working alone, according to the indictment. Seven co-defendants, spread across Ohio, Missouri, California, Washington and West Virginia, allegedly organized through Signal, SimpleX, Discord, TikTok and Instagram, and built what prosecutors describe as a tier system ranking how far each member was willing to go, up to and including going into hiding after the attack. One alleged sniper, Chandler Scaggs of West Virginia, was arrested by the FBI weeks after the others once agents tied him to the plot through a co-defendant's device. Court filings say the group had already amassed weapons, ammunition and tactical gear and had run marksmanship and combat training sessions before the arrests broke up the plan.

Was he the only case DHS cited?

No. DHS also cited Felipe Linares De Oliveira Dell Aquilla, a Brazilian national ICE Homeland Security Investigations agents arrested in June after a vehicle and foot pursuit in North Carolina. DHS identified him as a former commander of two designated foreign terrorist organizations, wanted in Brazil on criminal association and extortion charges, and says agents recovered a handgun, cash and multiple electronic devices during his arrest. He was also allegedly holding his wife against her will while preparing to flee to Mexico.

A third example DHS pointed to: four Venezuelan members of Tren de Aragua who pleaded guilty in May to charges tied to a 2024 Bronx shooting that killed two people. DHS says all four had entered the United States illegally between 2022 and 2023.

Why frame this around 9/11 specifically?

Because the attacks are the reason ICE exists in its current form. Nineteen hijackers killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, at the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania on Sept. 11, 2001, and the failure to connect the dots on who was in the country and why became the founding argument for building DHS. Twenty-five years later, the administration is using this week's anniversary to argue that mission is still producing results, not just paperwork.

President Trump, First Lady Melania Trump and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth marked last year's anniversary at the Pentagon Memorial, which honors the 184 people killed there in 2001. This year's commemorations fall on Friday, Sept. 11, and DHS timed its release to arrive two days ahead of them, giving the number a full news cycle to circulate before the memorial ceremonies themselves.

The generational gap matters here too. Most Americans turning 18 this year were not alive on Sept. 11, 2001, and have only known a country already reshaped by it: the TSA, the Patriot Act, two decades of overseas deployments, and now a DHS that is 25 years old and, by its own account, still finding people connected to terrorist organizations inside U.S. borders in 2026.

What's the honest caveat here?

"Known or suspected terrorist" is a specific immigration-enforcement classification, tied to watchlist and derogatory-information hits, not a claim that all 2,150 people arrested were actively plotting an attack on U.S. soil the way Alvarez and his co-defendants allegedly were. DHS itself only offered three detailed case examples to back up the aggregate number, and Alvarez's case is still an indictment, not a conviction. The other 2,140-plus arrests are not individually documented in what DHS released to Fox News. Readers should treat the headline number as DHS's own count, sourced to the department, not an independently audited figure.

What happens next

Alvarez and seven co-defendants face a two-count federal indictment out of the Southern District of Ohio: conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists, which carries up to 15 years, and conspiracy to commit murder on federal property, which carries up to life. Their case moves toward trial in Columbus. Friday's anniversary observances proceed at the Pentagon, Ground Zero and the Flight 93 National Memorial, marking a quarter-century since the attacks that created the agency now taking credit for these numbers.