AMNA NAWAZ: This week, Homeland Security officials said that Immigration and Customs Enforcement carried out more than 32,000 arrests in the first 50 days of the Trump administration.

According to data released by Customs and Border Protection, that includes over 14,000 migrants with criminal convictions, nearly 10,000 with pending criminal charges, and over 8,700 they call immigration violators.

Those numbers include the deportation of a 10-year-old U.S. citizen girl recovering from brain cancer after her undocumented parents were arrested last month.

Our White House correspondent, Laura Barron-Lopez, has been covering all this and joins us now.

So, Laura, let's take a look at those arrest numbers, those deportation numbers, and put them in context for us.

What should we understand?

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Right.

So, first on the arrests, they have increased, especially in the interior of the United States, compared to under President Biden.

And of the more than 32,000 arrests made within those first 50 days, 100 and -- oh, sorry, excuse me -- 1,155 were suspected gang members, 39 were known or suspected terrorists.

And I want to hit on that number again, Amna, the 8,718.

They were non-criminal migrants.

That means that those migrants have not been charged with a crime at all.

Now, when it comes to deportations, President Trump has not deported as many migrants as Biden compared to this time last year.

So, when you break it down, under President Trump, the deportations are lower at an average of 600 per day.

And under President Biden, the deportations in 2024 averaged about 750 per day.

Now, part of the reason that they're lower is due to the fact that border activity is lower.

There's fewer crossings right now, given the policies that the Trump administration has put in effect.

And there aren't as many immigration judges, and it appears as though the Trump administration is not necessarily going to add more immigration judges any time soon, Amna.

AMNA NAWAZ: We know that the Trump administration said they were going to prioritize for deportation people who were public safety threats, national security threats.

That seems not to be the case here.

How are they explaining that and who's being deported?

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Much of this is a P.R.

blitz right now.

And the White House -- that includes posts to social media, including from the White House account, an ASMR video which isolates specific audio of a deportation flight that includes the sound of chains.

This also -- this P.R.

blitz includes the fact that the DHS launched a $200 million ad campaign where they are attempting to sell the idea of mass deportations as something that is necessary for public safety.

And in that ad, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem talked straight to the camera, telling people to self-deport immediately.

Now, the White House and the Trump administration have repeatedly referred to all undocumented migrants as -- quote -- "criminals."

But that's not accurate, Amna, because many of the people that are being deported are not criminals.

They have no criminal history or record.

And a growing number -- that includes a growing number of those being deported.

And I spoke to Danny Woodward, who is the lawyer representing that 10-year-old girl who is recovering from brain cancer and her family, who were deported to a rural part of Mexico last month.

And he told me what happened, that, on February 3, that 10-year-old U.S. citizen girl woke up feeling dizzy, her head was hurting, and that her parents wanted to rush her to the hospital that had been treating her in Houston.

Her parents are Mexican nationals.

They're undocumented.

They had made this trip many times before, but this time they were stopped by CBP.

And despite the fact that they repeatedly told officers that their daughter was a U.S. citizen, they had hospital documentation, that many of their other children in the car with them were also U.S. citizens, that was not taken into account at all, and they were ultimately deported to what is considered a pretty dangerous part of rural Mexico.

And we should also note, Amna, that those parents have no criminal record as well.

So, again, despite a lot of the claims made by the administration that many of these are public safety threats, the deportation numbers suggest otherwise.

AMNA NAWAZ: Laura, you and I have spoken about this before.

You have been reporting on this.

We know that the immigration agenda of this administration isn't just about deportations of people who are here without legal status.

What are his plans for legal immigration as well?

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: So I spoke to David Bier.

He is the director of immigration studies at Cato Institute, and he said that the president's immigration agenda is just as much about legal immigration as it is about illegal immigration.

DAVID BIER, Cato Institute: One of the first actions they did was eliminate the parole programs that let people come in legally and apply and get vetted abroad and travel legally to the United States.

They got rid of the refugee program, which allows people who face persecution abroad who are coming - - again, coming into the country legally.

That's all types of immigration are under threat by this new administration, and it's looking to cut legal immigration significantly.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: In addition to closing most legal immigration pathways, the Trump administration has also revoked protected status for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans and Haitians.

And the president may soon have more authority to detain and deport legal immigrants.

According to reports, the president could invoke the Alien Enemies Act as early as tomorrow.

And we have previously reported that the president was considering this.

He has mentioned this repeatedly that he wanted to invoke this wartime authority, which would give him sweeping powers to detain and deport undocumented migrants, but, again, also legal noncitizen immigrants, including people ages 14 or older.

And so it only -- it would apply to any citizen of a country that the president declares is an enemy of this nation.

AMNA NAWAZ: I know one of the recent examples that's fallen under this is the case of Mahmoud Khalil, right?

He was a legal permanent resident here.

How is that case fitting into the approach that the Trump administration has on immigration?

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Today, we saw a protest breakout inside of Trump Tower in New York City in response to Khalil's ongoing detention at an ICE facility in Louisiana.

And, as you noted, Khalil is a green card holder.

He's a legal permanent resident.

And so far he has not been charged with any kind of crime.

And in the court filings this week, the administration only cited this immigration provision that's considered obscure by some that says that the secretary of state can deport someone if they pose -- quote -- "potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences" for the United States.

Now, David Bier of Cato Institute added that the immigration law is expansive.

It gives a lot of authority to the executive branch.

And he warned that noncitizens should be concerned that this administration could target them if they disagree with this administration's political agenda and that ultimately this administration could carry out potential deportation cases against legal immigrants.

AMNA NAWAZ: That's our White House correspondent, Laura Barron-Lopez.

Laura, thank you.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Thank you.