ICE arrests more immigrants in jails than in communities

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is detaining more immigrants who are already in custody than on the streets of major U.S. cities. This trend is reflected in figures from the Deportation Data Project, which indicate that from late January to late June of this year, 49% of the 109,000 arrests occurred inside prisons, while 44% took place in communities. These numbers would seem to prove the Trump Administration right when it claims to be going mostly after “criminal immigrants” to make the country a safer place, but records show that most of the foreigners serving a sentence committed only minor offenses, such as traffic violations, immigration violations, and other non-violent charges.

To operate inside prisons, the federal agency must follow a protocol that involves sending prison officials a request to detain undocumented inmates. Only when these requests are accepted can agents go to the prison facilities to arrest them again. The main problem the government faces in implementing this strategy—which guarantees quick and low-cost detentions—is sanctuary city policies. In many of them, foreigners are released before ICE officials can take them, which has intensified the struggle between Washington and local authorities in cities like Los Angeles and Chicago. Border czar Tom Homan consequently announced an increased ICE presence in these jurisdictions.

Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons also resents the fact that the jail detention plan cannot be advanced due to local laws protecting immigrants. “If sanctuary cities would change their policies and turn these violent criminal aliens over to us, into our custody, instead of releasing them into the public, we would not have to go out into the communities and do this,” he said in June, referring directly to what happens in his hometown of Boston, where police are not allowed to check the immigration status of detained immigrants. “It really shocks me that officials all over Massachusetts would rather release sex offenders, fentanyl dealers. drug dealers, human traffickers, child rapists back into the neighborhoods.,” he added, despite evidence to the contrary.

ICE tactics by state

A CNN analysis of an ICE report confirms that the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant enforcement arm arrests more immigrants in Republican states than in Democratic states, but not in the same way. In states that voted for President Trump, ICE agents tend to arrest more immigrants directly in prisons and jails; while in blue states, they carry out more mass raids and workplace ambushes.

Statistics through the end of May indicate that 59% of arrests in Republican states took place in prisons, and that 41% of those arrested had criminal records for minor offenses. Meanwhile, in Democratic states, 70% of arrests took place in public spaces, and only 36% of foreigners had a criminal record.

This reality demonstrates how immigrants face truly diverse tactics depending on where they live. For example, in New York, where state and local policies limit police cooperation with ICE, only 4% of immigrants sought by the federal agency were arrested in jails; but in Mississippi, a state that has not enacted any immigration enforcement laws, 87% of undocumented foreigners in detention were handed over to ICE.

The arrest machine continues to seek to increase its capacity to try to achieve the goal of one million deportees by the end of 2025. A growing number of local and state police forces, primarily in Republican states, continue to sign up to collaborate with ICE in the effort to capture a greater number of illegal immigrants. The recently passed “Big and Beautiful” tax law will also give the government billions of dollars in extra money to boost its immigration agenda, but the figures indicate that sanctuary cities remain the major stumbling block to the Republican president’s plans.

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