Video shows river rises dramatically in New Mexico flooding
At least three people, including two children, were killed in Village of Ruidoso in southern New Mexico, after monsoon rains triggered flash flooding on Tuesday, officials said. The Rio Ruidoso surged drastically from under 2 feet to over 20 feet in less than an hour.
00:36 - Source: CNN
Automated CNN Shorts 11 videos
Video shows river rises dramatically in New Mexico flooding
At least three people, including two children, were killed in Village of Ruidoso in southern New Mexico, after monsoon rains triggered flash flooding on Tuesday, officials said. The Rio Ruidoso surged drastically from under 2 feet to over 20 feet in less than an hour.
00:36 - Source: CNN
Video: Home washes away during floods in New Mexico
At least three people, including two children, were killed in a mountain village in southern New Mexico, after monsoon rains triggered flash flooding on Tuesday, officials said. Video shows a home in Rio Ruidoso being washed away by what authorities described as 'record-breaking' floodwaters. Emergency crews carried out at least 85 swift water rescues in the Ruidoso area, including of people who were trapped in their homes and cars, said Danielle Silva of the New Mexico Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, according to the Associated Press.
00:22 - Source: CNN
Kristi Noem announces end of shoe removal policy at airport security
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced a new policy stating the Transportation Security Administration will be eliminating the shoe removal security requirement 'effective immediately.'
01:06 - Source: CNN
Sean 'Diddy' Combs' sentencing date announced
Sean 'Diddy' Combs will be sentenced in a hearing set to be held October 3, after he was found guilty on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. CNN's Elizabeth Wagmeister reports that Combs faces a max prison sentence of up to 20 years for both charges combined.
01:06 - Source: CNN
CNN reporters press officials on timeline of their response to floods
CNN Anchor Pamela Brown, a former camper at Camp Mystic, details how her CNN colleagues challenged Texas officials on their timeline of the flood response, four days after flash floods killed more than 100 people in Kerr County.
01:44 - Source: CNN
CNN speaks to Texas search and rescue workers from Mexico
A team of first responders from Mexico has joined search efforts in central Texas where at least 161 people remain missing following catastrophic flash flooding. CNN's Gustavo Valdés spoke with one of the group's responders on the ground in Kerr County to see the challenges the Mexican group now faces amid miles of debris.
00:38 - Source: CNN
Texas Governor: At least 161 known missing in Kerr County
At least 161 people are known to be missing in Kerr County as a result of the flood, according to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who cited 'combined law enforcement efforts.'
01:10 - Source: CNN
Mexicans protest immigrants from US
Residents of Mexico City are protesting against gentrification that is forcing some people out, and they partially blame the United States. More than 1.6 million US citizens already reside in Mexico, according to the US State department.
01:30 - Source: CNN
New Barbie raising awareness about type 1 diabetes
Mattel designed a new Barbie to represent those living with type 1 diabetes. CNN's Jacqueline Howard explains what makes this doll unique.
01:18 - Source: CNN
Will AI replace human musicians? Recording Academy CEO weighs in
Harvey Mason Jr., a music producer and CEO of the Recording Academy and GRAMMYs, explains why he's "optimistic but scared" about the impact of artificial intelligence technology on the music industry. Listen to his full interview on CNN's Terms of Service with Clare Duffy here.
02:02 - Source: CNN
Kaitlan Collins presses Trump on who paused Ukraine weapons
President Trump's approval of sending defensive weapons to Ukraine amounted to a turnaround after a senior White House official told CNN last week that the administration was pausing some of those shipments. CNN's Kaitlan Collins questioned the President about the pause.
00:28 - Source: CNN
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CNN
2 hours ago
- CNN
How Corey Lewandowski's power at the Department of Homeland Security keeps growing
Federal agencies Donald Trump National securityFacebookTweetLink Follow As Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem jetted across South America last week, there was one familiar face from President Donald Trump's orbit frequently at her side: Corey Lewandowski. Lewandowski has become a fixture at the Department of Homeland Security, serving as Noem's chief adviser . But on paper, he was originally tapped to serve as a special government employee, a unique role meant to span a limited number of days. He's not included on the department's leadership list, but in other DHS materials he's been described as chief adviser to the secretary. A senior Homeland Security official, speaking on behalf of the department in response to questions from CNN, said Lewandowski remains a special government employee — a status that typically lasts up to 130 days in a yearlong period — and his time 'is kept by a career DHS employee who submits the paperwork on a bi-weekly basis.' He isn't paid by DHS and doesn't receive federal government benefits, the official said. Lewandowski — who has previously worked as a lobbyist, strategic adviser and campaign operative — has filed a financial disclosure, the DHS official said. CNN has asked for a copy of the disclosure form. Last week, Lewandowski was pictured at Noem's side during meetings in Argentina, the first stop of the secretary's South America swing, and later participated in a bilateral meeting with Chilean and Ecuadorian officials, along with senior Homeland Security officials. It's indicative of the enormous power Lewandowski has amassed during his time at DHS. Lewandowski has directed the firings of personnel, requested employees be put on administrative leave, called agency leaders 'to hold them accountable,' and in at least one instance, signed off on billions of dollars in FEMA grant funding, according to multiple sources and documents viewed by CNN. 'He's the de facto chief of staff in the department. Everyone is terrified of him because he has almost singular authority to fire people,' a source familiar with the dynamic told CNN. Homeland Security officials told CNN Lewandowski is viewed as Noem's gatekeeper. Asked about his role, the senior DHS official described him as an adviser. Lewandowski joined the department on a temporary basis in mid-February after floating in and out of Trump's world over several years. He served as Trump's campaign manager from June 2015 until he was fired a year later, amid a series of negative stories and internal tensions with other advisers and some of Trump's children. Lewandowski was formally brought on to staff Trump's 2024 campaign just months before Election Day, with the candidate telling his former campaign manager he missed the old days of his first run for the White House. But his addition — which came in the midst of a tumultuous time for Trump's political operation as it sought to adapt to their new opponent, then-Vice President Kamala Harris — quickly led to internal drama. Trump's co-campaign managers at the time, Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita, were irked by Lewandowski's efforts to constantly assert himself in high-level decisions, often taking his opinions directly to Trump, sources familiar with the discussions told CNN at the time. His actions, they felt, threatened to subvert a carefully crafted dynamic that Wiles and LaCivita cultivated for the previous two years. Those clashes quickly spread throughout much of the senior campaign team, the sources said, many of whom continued working for Trump throughout his presidential transition and accompanied him to the White House. Lewandowski was sidelined before the campaign ended, and he didn't score a top position in the West Wing. Many people considered core members of Trump's inner circle, who are not only fiercely loyal to Trump but also to Wiles and each other, continue to view Lewandowski with a dose of skepticism. In a statement, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson called Lewandowski 'one of President Trump's longest and most trusted advisers.' 'The tremendous results coming from the Department of Homeland Security – a historically secure border, safer American communities, and successful deportations of criminal illegal aliens – speak for themselves,' Jackson said. Lewandowski also previously advised Noem when she was South Dakota governor. But both Noem and a pro-Trump super PAC cut ties with him in 2021 following allegations that he made unwanted sexual advances toward a GOP donor, accusations Lewandowski denied. Lewandowski later made a deal with Las Vegas prosecutors to resolve a misdemeanor battery charge stemming from the allegations. Lewandowski eventually returned to Noem's orbit and is now often spotted at the secretary's side as she mounts an aggressive public relations strategy to advance Trump's immigration agenda. 'Everything he's doing is to increase (Noem's) profile,' a DHS official said, referring to Lewandowski. The Trump administration has leaned heavily on staunch allies serving in temporary roles — and extended immense authority to those people. Elon Musk, who similarly held special government employee status until departing the administration, attempted to reshape the federal government by slashing the workforce and cutting billions in funding. It's not unusual for secretaries to lean on people outside government for advice or for senior Homeland Security officials to be intimately involved in day-to-day business. But Lewandowski appears to be somewhere in between, raising questions internally, primarily: How long can he continue to call the shots in a position meant to be temporary? Special government employees are subject to less stringent ethics requirements and as a result, are generally allowed to serve 130 days in a yearlong period, which don't have to be consecutive. But if their time is expected to span longer and they're taking on more responsibilities, then they would face higher requirements, according to experts. Federal agencies typically estimate how long an SGE will stay on board. 'Previously, SGEs primarily served in advisory and technical positions that required expertise, and their outside conflicts of interest were less of a concern because they weren't involved in funding and personnel decisions in the same way as a senior career employee,' said Cristin Dorgelo, a former Office of Management and Budget official during the Biden administration. 'The management of core government functions has not been something that SGEs have commonly filled roles around.' Lewandowski's straddling of senior government functions at DHS and service as a special government employee is another example of uncharted territory. 'This is not what this authority was intended for,' said Sam Berger, a former OMB official and senior fellow at the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Lewandowski's growing influence over DHS is strikingly evident in his relentless push to help the Trump administration dismantle the Federal Emergency Management Agency. On the campaign trail, Trump railed against FEMA for its response to Hurricane Helene, branding it partisan and ineffective – a narrative that grew into calls to eliminate the agency altogether. From the early days of the Trump administration, Lewandowski made his intentions clear: he would be the president's hatchet man, determined to take FEMA apart — no matter who stood in his way. Lewandowski's hard-charging style quickly set him on a collision course with Cameron Hamilton , Trump's first acting FEMA administrator. The two clashed repeatedly, with Lewandowski ultimately orchestrating Hamilton's abrupt and public downfall, multiple sources told CNN. Publicly, the Trump administration cast FEMA as a bloated, 'woke' bureaucracy in desperate need of a reckoning. Behind closed doors, Hamilton pushed back, arguing that the agency's real challenges stemmed from a barrage of congressional mandates — not from its own staff. He became increasingly insistent that FEMA should not be scrapped, warning that the president and Noem were being led astray by bad advice. Lewandowski repeatedly berated Hamilton in front of colleagues, accusing him of losing sight of the administration's mission. The atmosphere inside FEMA grew increasingly tense. After CNN reported details of a high-level meeting about dismantling the agency, Lewandowski ordered staff to administer a polygraph test to several employees including Hamilton, seeking to determine whether he had leaked information to the press. 'Under Secretary Noem's leadership, DHS is unapologetic about its efforts to root out leakers that undermine national security,' the senior DHS official said, adding that the department is 'agnostic about your standing, tenure , political appointment, or status as a career civil servant.' Hamilton's tenure ended swiftly and unceremoniously. Just hours before he was scheduled to testify before Congress, he was accidentally alerted of his impending termination, after DHS notified FEMA security that his access would soon be shut off. He then broke with the administration, telling lawmakers he could not support the plan to eliminate FEMA. He was fired the next day. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt later blamed Hamilton's testimony for his dismissal, saying, 'This individual testified saying something that was contrary to what the president believes and the goals of this administration in regards to FEMA policy.' In reality, Lewandowski's plan to remove Hamilton had been weeks in the making, multiple sources told CNN. According to the sources, Lewandowski pushed to install his own loyalist, David Richardson, as Hamilton's successor, though the senior DHS official told CNN this is 'categorically false.' Richardson — a personal friend of Lewandowski and DHS official with no prior experience managing natural disasters — had previously received a glowing public review from Lewandowski for his book, 'War Story,' which Lewandowski described as 'brutal, funny in places, unapologetic. Will make liberals cringe!' At his first agencywide meeting, Richardson made a point of thanking three people for his new role at FEMA, according to a recording heard by CNN: 'I do appreciate that President Trump, Secretary Noem and Corey Lewandowski had the confidence in me to send me here.' Lewandowski's grip on FEMA has only tightened as DHS has expanded its reach, installing more than half a dozen loyalists in FEMA's front office to effectively steer the agency from within. And his authority continues to grow. Lewandowski routinely overrides the department's Deputy Secretary Troy Edgar, acting as the department's de facto second-in-command. When he wants to kill a proposal, he's been known to scrawl 'Denied' or 'No' across documents in thick Sharpie, leaving no doubt about who truly holds the reins. The senior DHS official told CNN that 'multiple staff have the ability to provide recommendations and input' and both Edgar and Lewandowski make recommendations to the secretary, 'who has the final decision.' But sources painted a different picture. 'If you're not getting through Corey, it's not getting done,' a source with knowledge of Lewandowski's influence told CNN. 'Noem gives the final thumbs up on the calls, but Corey drives the conversations and the narrative.' When politics and policy collide, Lewandowski is often at the heart of the action. Earlier this year, as billions in FEMA grant funds were paused for review, top brass at DHS instructed agency staff to prioritize payments for GOP-led Missouri. Internal emails obtained by CNN at the time show Lewandowski at the center of these conversations, ensuring FEMA leaders greenlit the payments — even as some officials raised concerns about the optics of favoring certain states. Current and former Homeland Security officials describe Lewandowski as Noem's right-hand man who, they say, keeps people in line on behalf of the secretary. That manifests in phone calls and meetings, which can be tense if something has gone awry. 'He's the hammer and you're the nail,' one Homeland Security official said. 'He's the guy that's going to hold you accountable.' In two instances, one source recalled, Lewandowski directed two people be placed on administrative leave — one for use of gender pronouns in email, the other for a late edit in briefing materials. When asked about those instances, the senior DHS official said the department's Office of Management is responsible for placing individuals on administrative leave. When there's been abrupt turnover at Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Lewandowski has joined the all-hands meetings, according to a former Homeland Security official. He also often travels with the secretary and was on site during a high-profile clash with California Sen. Alex Padilla, who was forcibly removed from a Noem news conference in Los Angeles earlier this year and coerced to the ground after attempting to ask the secretary a question about immigration enforcement operations in the city. It was Lewandowski who told DHS to remove the handcuffs, according to a Senate aide. 'After the incident, Corey was the one who came down and asked DHS to release the senator and offered the meeting with the secretary,' the aide said, adding that Lewandowski offered refreshments and facilitated getting a room for the senator to wait until the secretary was available. 'He seemed to be the one calling all the shots,' the aide said, adding that Lewandowski referred to himself as a 'staff guy.' Since joining the department, Lewandowski has also been named to other posts. In June, Trump and Noem announced appointments to the Homeland Security advisory council, which was first established in 2002 to provide 'real-time, real-world and independent advice on homeland security operations' and relies on experts across industries, many of whom hold posts outside of government. Lewandowski was listed as chief advisor to the DHS secretary. 'It's a privilege to be here and I hope to get to offer some advice and counsel as we go through this very important job,' he said during the council's first meeting in July, according to a transcript .
CNN
2 hours ago
- CNN
ICE follows starkly different playbooks in how it's arresting immigrants in red and blue states, data shows
The Trump administration is apprehending hundreds of immigrants every day across the country – but there's a stark split in where Immigration and Customs Enforcement makes those arrests in blue states and red states. In states that voted for President Donald Trump, ICE agents are far more likely to arrest immigrants directly from prisons and jails, a CNN analysis of data from the agency found. In Democratic-leaning states, by contrast, ICE is frequently arresting immigrants from worksites, streets and mass roundups that have sparked protests and intense backlash in cities such as Los Angeles. Most of those arrested don't have any criminal record. The ICE data shows that overall, more immigrants are being arrested in red states than blue states – both in the community and, especially, in prisons and jails. But there is a clear divide in where ICE is apprehending people: 59% of arrests in red states took place in prisons and jails, while 70% of arrests in blue states took place in the community. That partisan gap between red and blue states existed before Trump's second term began – but it has widened since last year. Trump officials say the differing tactics are simply a downstream effect of sanctuary policies in many Democratic-controlled states and large cities, which can limit prisons and jails from cooperating with ICE. In many of those states, local authorities can't hold immigrants in custody based on ICE orders alone – so they're often released before immigration officials can arrest them. 'Sanctuary cities are going to get exactly what they don't want, more agents in the communities and more worksite enforcement,' Trump border czar Tom Homan told reporters last month. 'Why is that? Because they won't let one agent arrest one bad guy in a jail.' But advocates for immigrant rights say the community arrests – from raids at factories and restaurants to surprise detentions at ICE check-ins – are punitive measures aimed at instilling fear in blue states and cities. The aggressive tactics reflect 'a deliberate federal strategy to punish Massachusetts and other immigrant-friendly states for standing up against Trump's reckless deportation machine,' argued Iván Espinoza-Madrigal, the executive director of Lawyers for Civil Rights, a Boston-based nonprofit that represents immigrants in court. An ICE spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment on CNN's analysis. The divide is especially dramatic in Massachusetts, where 94% of immigrants arrested by ICE were apprehended in the community, and 78% of them had no criminal record. The state has a court decision and local policies that limit law enforcement from cooperating with ICE. The agency's regional office was also led until March by Todd Lyons, who is now the acting ICE director, and who has described the focus on community arrests in Massachusetts, his home state, as a direct response to sanctuary policies. '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 to the communities and do this,' Lyons said at a press conference in June. Regardless of the cause, the varying local laws and ICE tactics are creating a 'patchwork system' across the country, said Kathleen Bush-Joseph, a lawyer and policy analyst with the Migration Policy Institute. Immigrants are facing 'really divergent outcomes based on where people live,' she said. CNN's analysis is based on ICE records obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request by the Deportation Data Project, a research group associated with the UC Berkeley law school. The analysis covers the period since Trump took office through late June. In its annual reports, ICE defines arrests in two categories: those that happen in prisons and jails, and 'at-large' arrests in the community. In prisons and jails, ICE typically sends a detainer request to corrections officials for undocumented inmates, and then agents come to the facilities to arrest them before they leave custody. Community arrests, by contrast, include everything from workplace raids to teams trailing and apprehending immigrants. In 2024, under President Joe Biden – whose administration said it was prioritizing arresting and deporting undocumented immigrants with criminal records – about 62% of ICE arrests were from prisons and jails, while 27% were in the community, the data shows. So far in Trump's term, arrests overall are up, and the balance has changed: 49% have been in prisons and jails, and 44% in the community. But those percentages diverge widely between the 31 states won by Donald Trump and the 19 states won by Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, which have similar total undocumented populations, according to 2023 estimates from the Center for Migration Studies, a nonprofit. In the Trump-voting states, ICE is not only more likely to arrest immigrants already in custody, but they're also more likely to have a record: 41% of those arrested in red states had a prior criminal conviction, compared to 36% of immigrants arrested by ICE in Harris states. Most prior convictions are for lower-level crimes like traffic offenses, immigration violations and other non-violent charges, a CNN analysis of internal ICE data found earlier this summer. In part, that disparity comes from how states and cities without sanctuary policies respond to ICE detainer requests. In most red states, those detainers are honored, allowing ICE to pick up thousands of undocumented immigrants directly from jail or prison. But in many blue states and cities, sanctuary policies direct officials to refuse ICE detainer requests without a court warrant. Some states go further in limiting local police's collaboration with ICE: Boston prevents officers from even asking about immigration status, for example. The ICE data suggests that some sanctuary policies are blocking the agency from arresting immigrants – to a point. In Mississippi, for example, which has banned the establishment of sanctuary policies in the state, 87% of immigrants ICE filed a detainer request for through the end of May were later arrested by the agency in prisons and jails. In New York, which has state and local policies limiting cooperation with ICE, only 4% of the immigrants that ICE had requested detainers for were arrested in prisons and jails. So in blue states, the Trump administration has instead relied more on a different policy: immigration raids and community arrests. In Los Angeles, where those raids sparked unrest earlier this summer, Trump deployed the National Guard. The administration later sued the city for its sanctuary policies, saying the city was contributing to a 'lawless and unsafe environment.' Many activists, though, say the nature of those blue-state raids – and especially ICE's efforts to promote and publicize them – show they serve a broader purpose beyond just evading sanctuary policies. Those aggressive tactics are 'shocking and they're such a departure from the norm,' Bush-Joseph said. 'But their intent might be more so about deterrence and trying to dissuade people from coming to the US-Mexico border, as well as trying to get people to self-deport.' Overall, ICE's arrest and detention machine may just be ramping up. The recent budget reconciliation bill signed by Trump includes billions in new funding for the agency. And a growing number of local and state law enforcement agencies – largely in red states – are signing up for an ICE program that allows them to help enforce immigration laws. ICE's embrace of public arrests is particularly pronounced in Massachusetts. While Massachusetts doesn't have a formal sanctuary law at the state level, a 2017 state supreme court ruling bans law enforcement from holding anyone beyond the time they would otherwise be released on the basis of an ICE detainer request. Boston and several other cities also have policies that go further, preventing law enforcement from coordinating with ICE more broadly. Lyons, the acting ICE director, led the Boston ICE office – which is responsible for arrests in Massachusetts and five other New England states – before being elevated to his current role. In interviews and statements, he's decried sanctuary policies in the state. 'Boston's my hometown and it really shocks me that officials all over Massachusetts would rather release sex offenders, fentanyl dealers, drug dealers, human traffickers, and child rapists back into the neighborhoods,' he told reporters this summer – without addressing the fact that a large majority of immigrants arrested in the state this year had no criminal convictions. In May, ICE carried out what officials described as the largest enforcement operation in the agency's history, arresting more than 1,400 people in communities across Massachusetts. Around New England, other high-profile cases have included ICE officers detaining a Tufts PhD student who co-wrote a student newspaper op-ed critical of Israel and smashing the window of an immigrant's car and yanking him out of the passenger seat in front of his wife. ICE's aggressive tactics in the region have been defined by 'a general level of mean-spiritedness and brutality,' said Daniel Kanstroom, a Boston College law professor who founded the college's immigration and asylum law clinic. 'We've never seen masked agents before. We've never seen students arrested for writing op-eds before. We've never seen people dragged out of immigration court before.' Stepped-up community arrests are having a marked impact on immigrant-heavy neighborhoods in the Boston area, local advocates say. In suburbs like Chelsea and Everett, which have large Salvadoran and Central American communities, some immigrants are staying home out of fear of ICE raids. 'We're seeing people not going to their doctor's appointments, kids not going to school, folks not going grocery shopping,' said Sarang Sekhavat, the chief of staff at the Massachusetts Immigrant & Refugee Advocacy Coalition. 'You're seeing a lot of businesses in some of these neighborhoods really suffering because people just don't want to leave home… bustling, active neighborhoods that have become very quiet now.' ICE's dragnet has picked up people like Geovani Esau De La Cruz Catalan, who was arrested by immigration agents on the street outside his Chelsea home in June – just days after he crossed the stage at his high school graduation. The 20-year-old, who has no criminal history, came to the US from Guatemala in 2022. He told CNN his hopes to build a new life in America were dashed when he was detained. 'I thought they were going to take away all the dreams I had,' De La Cruz said in Spanish. 'I was in shock.' De La Cruz spent two weeks in ICE custody before being released with a future immigration court date. His stepmother, Mayra Balderas, said he has a work permit, but it's unclear whether he'll be allowed to stay or deported back to Guatemala. Balderas, an American citizen who immigrated to the US more than three decades ago, said ICE agents were frequently patrolling her Chelsea neighborhood, something she'd never seen before Trump took office. 'Since I've been here, I never have any experience like that – going into the neighborhoods and pulling people and doing what they're doing,' Balderas said. 'They are scaring people.' Methodology CNN analyzed data on ICE arrests and detainers published by the Data Deportation Project, a research group associated with UC Berkeley law school. The data includes administrative arrests, in which immigrants arrested face deportation, not criminal arrests for human trafficking or similar crimes. For data that was missing information about the state where an immigrant was arrested, when possible, CNN inferred the state based on which ICE field office conducted the arrest, using areas of responsibility described on the ICE website. A state could not be identified for about 11% of arrests, and those are not included in state-by-state totals. Based on information in ICE annual reports and interviews with policy experts, CNN defined arrests in jails and prisons as those with an apprehension method described in the data as 'CAP Local Incarceration,' 'CAP State Incarceration,' or 'CAP Federal Incarceration' (referring to ICE's Criminal Alien Program) and arrests in the community as those listed as 'Non-Custodial Arrest,' 'Located,' 'Worksite Enforcement,' 'Traffic Check,' or 'Probation and Parole.' About 7% of arrests were listed as 'Other Efforts' or didn't fit clearly into either category.
CNN
2 hours ago
- CNN
ICE follows starkly different playbooks in how it's arresting immigrants in red and blue states, data shows
Immigration Federal agencies Donald Trump Immigration politicsFacebookTweetLink Follow The Trump administration is apprehending hundreds of immigrants every day across the country – but there's a stark split in where Immigration and Customs Enforcement makes those arrests in blue states and red states. In states that voted for President Donald Trump, ICE agents are far more likely to arrest immigrants directly from prisons and jails, a CNN analysis of data from the agency found. In Democratic-leaning states, by contrast, ICE is frequently arresting immigrants from worksites, streets and mass roundups that have sparked protests and intense backlash in cities such as Los Angeles. Most of those arrested don't have any criminal record. The ICE data shows that overall, more immigrants are being arrested in red states than blue states – both in the community and, especially, in prisons and jails. But there is a clear divide in where ICE is apprehending people: 59% of arrests in red states took place in prisons and jails, while 70% of arrests in blue states took place in the community. That partisan gap between red and blue states existed before Trump's second term began – but it has widened since last year. Trump officials say the differing tactics are simply a downstream effect of sanctuary policies in many Democratic-controlled states and large cities, which can limit prisons and jails from cooperating with ICE. In many of those states, local authorities can't hold immigrants in custody based on ICE orders alone – so they're often released before immigration officials can arrest them. 'Sanctuary cities are going to get exactly what they don't want, more agents in the communities and more worksite enforcement,' Trump border czar Tom Homan told reporters last month. 'Why is that? Because they won't let one agent arrest one bad guy in a jail.' But advocates for immigrant rights say the community arrests – from raids at factories and restaurants to surprise detentions at ICE check-ins – are punitive measures aimed at instilling fear in blue states and cities. The aggressive tactics reflect 'a deliberate federal strategy to punish Massachusetts and other immigrant-friendly states for standing up against Trump's reckless deportation machine,' argued Iván Espinoza-Madrigal, the executive director of Lawyers for Civil Rights, a Boston-based nonprofit that represents immigrants in court. An ICE spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment on CNN's analysis. The divide is especially dramatic in Massachusetts, where 94% of immigrants arrested by ICE were apprehended in the community, and 78% of them had no criminal record. The state has a court decision and local policies that limit law enforcement from cooperating with ICE. The agency's regional office was also led until March by Todd Lyons, who is now the acting ICE director, and who has described the focus on community arrests in Massachusetts, his home state, as a direct response to sanctuary policies. '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 to the communities and do this,' Lyons said at a press conference in June. Regardless of the cause, the varying local laws and ICE tactics are creating a 'patchwork system' across the country, said Kathleen Bush-Joseph, a lawyer and policy analyst with the Migration Policy Institute. Immigrants are facing 'really divergent outcomes based on where people live,' she said. CNN's analysis is based on ICE records obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request by the Deportation Data Project, a research group associated with the UC Berkeley law school. The analysis covers the period since Trump took office through late June. In its annual reports, ICE defines arrests in two categories: those that happen in prisons and jails, and 'at-large' arrests in the community. In prisons and jails, ICE typically sends a detainer request to corrections officials for undocumented inmates, and then agents come to the facilities to arrest them before they leave custody. Community arrests, by contrast, include everything from workplace raids to teams trailing and apprehending immigrants. In 2024, under President Joe Biden – whose administration said it was prioritizing arresting and deporting undocumented immigrants with criminal records – about 62% of ICE arrests were from prisons and jails, while 27% were in the community, the data shows. So far in Trump's term, arrests overall are up, and the balance has changed: 49% have been in prisons and jails, and 44% in the community. But those percentages diverge widely between the 31 states won by Donald Trump and the 19 states won by Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, which have similar total undocumented populations, according to 2023 estimates from the Center for Migration Studies, a nonprofit. In the Trump-voting states, ICE is not only more likely to arrest immigrants already in custody, but they're also more likely to have a record: 41% of those arrested in red states had a prior criminal conviction, compared to 36% of immigrants arrested by ICE in Harris states. Most prior convictions are for lower-level crimes like traffic offenses, immigration violations and other non-violent charges, a CNN analysis of internal ICE data found earlier this summer. In part, that disparity comes from how states and cities without sanctuary policies respond to ICE detainer requests. In most red states, those detainers are honored, allowing ICE to pick up thousands of undocumented immigrants directly from jail or prison. But in many blue states and cities, sanctuary policies direct officials to refuse ICE detainer requests without a court warrant. Some states go further in limiting local police's collaboration with ICE: Boston prevents officers from even asking about immigration status, for example. The ICE data suggests that some sanctuary policies are blocking the agency from arresting immigrants – to a point. In Mississippi, for example, which has banned the establishment of sanctuary policies in the state, 87% of immigrants ICE filed a detainer request for through the end of May were later arrested by the agency in prisons and jails. In New York, which has state and local policies limiting cooperation with ICE, only 4% of the immigrants that ICE had requested detainers for were arrested in prisons and jails. So in blue states, the Trump administration has instead relied more on a different policy: immigration raids and community arrests. In Los Angeles, where those raids sparked unrest earlier this summer, Trump deployed the National Guard. The administration later sued the city for its sanctuary policies, saying the city was contributing to a 'lawless and unsafe environment.' Many activists, though, say the nature of those blue-state raids – and especially ICE's efforts to promote and publicize them – show they serve a broader purpose beyond just evading sanctuary policies. Those aggressive tactics are 'shocking and they're such a departure from the norm,' Bush-Joseph said. 'But their intent might be more so about deterrence and trying to dissuade people from coming to the US-Mexico border, as well as trying to get people to self-deport.' Overall, ICE's arrest and detention machine may just be ramping up. The recent budget reconciliation bill signed by Trump includes billions in new funding for the agency. And a growing number of local and state law enforcement agencies – largely in red states – are signing up for an ICE program that allows them to help enforce immigration laws. ICE's embrace of public arrests is particularly pronounced in Massachusetts. While Massachusetts doesn't have a formal sanctuary law at the state level, a 2017 state supreme court ruling bans law enforcement from holding anyone beyond the time they would otherwise be released on the basis of an ICE detainer request. Boston and several other cities also have policies that go further, preventing law enforcement from coordinating with ICE more broadly. Lyons, the acting ICE director, led the Boston ICE office – which is responsible for arrests in Massachusetts and five other New England states – before being elevated to his current role. In interviews and statements, he's decried sanctuary policies in the state. 'Boston's my hometown and it really shocks me that officials all over Massachusetts would rather release sex offenders, fentanyl dealers, drug dealers, human traffickers, and child rapists back into the neighborhoods,' he told reporters this summer – without addressing the fact that a large majority of immigrants arrested in the state this year had no criminal convictions. In May, ICE carried out what officials described as the largest enforcement operation in the agency's history, arresting more than 1,400 people in communities across Massachusetts. Around New England, other high-profile cases have included ICE officers detaining a Tufts PhD student who co-wrote a student newspaper op-ed critical of Israel and smashing the window of an immigrant's car and yanking him out of the passenger seat in front of his wife. ICE's aggressive tactics in the region have been defined by 'a general level of mean-spiritedness and brutality,' said Daniel Kanstroom, a Boston College law professor who founded the college's immigration and asylum law clinic. 'We've never seen masked agents before. We've never seen students arrested for writing op-eds before. We've never seen people dragged out of immigration court before.' Stepped-up community arrests are having a marked impact on immigrant-heavy neighborhoods in the Boston area, local advocates say. In suburbs like Chelsea and Everett, which have large Salvadoran and Central American communities, some immigrants are staying home out of fear of ICE raids. 'We're seeing people not going to their doctor's appointments, kids not going to school, folks not going grocery shopping,' said Sarang Sekhavat, the chief of staff at the Massachusetts Immigrant & Refugee Advocacy Coalition. 'You're seeing a lot of businesses in some of these neighborhoods really suffering because people just don't want to leave home… bustling, active neighborhoods that have become very quiet now.' ICE's dragnet has picked up people like Geovani Esau De La Cruz Catalan, who was arrested by immigration agents on the street outside his Chelsea home in June – just days after he crossed the stage at his high school graduation. The 20-year-old, who has no criminal history, came to the US from Guatemala in 2022. He told CNN his hopes to build a new life in America were dashed when he was detained. 'I thought they were going to take away all the dreams I had,' De La Cruz said in Spanish. 'I was in shock.' De La Cruz spent two weeks in ICE custody before being released with a future immigration court date. His stepmother, Mayra Balderas, said he has a work permit, but it's unclear whether he'll be allowed to stay or deported back to Guatemala. Balderas, an American citizen who immigrated to the US more than three decades ago, said ICE agents were frequently patrolling her Chelsea neighborhood, something she'd never seen before Trump took office. 'Since I've been here, I never have any experience like that – going into the neighborhoods and pulling people and doing what they're doing,' Balderas said. 'They are scaring people.' Methodology CNN analyzed data on ICE arrests and detainers published by the Data Deportation Project, a research group associated with UC Berkeley law school. The data includes administrative arrests, in which immigrants arrested face deportation, not criminal arrests for human trafficking or similar crimes. For data that was missing information about the state where an immigrant was arrested, when possible, CNN inferred the state based on which ICE field office conducted the arrest, using areas of responsibility described on the ICE website. A state could not be identified for about 11% of arrests, and those are not included in state-by-state totals. Based on information in ICE annual reports and interviews with policy experts, CNN defined arrests in jails and prisons as those with an apprehension method described in the data as 'CAP Local Incarceration,' 'CAP State Incarceration,' or 'CAP Federal Incarceration' (referring to ICE's Criminal Alien Program) and arrests in the community as those listed as 'Non-Custodial Arrest,' 'Located,' 'Worksite Enforcement,' 'Traffic Check,' or 'Probation and Parole.' About 7% of arrests were listed as 'Other Efforts' or didn't fit clearly into either category.
