A majority of ICE arrests in Trump's first 5 months took place in border and Southern states, figures show

CBS News

a day ago

Most of the more than 109,000 arrests carried out by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement during the first five months of President Trump's second term took place in border and Southern states, according to a CBS News analysis of government data.
States in the southern U.S., as well as those along the border with Mexico, saw the highest levels of ICE arrests between the start of Mr. Trump's second term on Jan. 20 and June 27, the figures show.
That continued a trend that predates the current administration, though ICE arrests have increased sharply across the country since last year. During the same time period in 2024, under the Biden administration, ICE made over 49,000 arrests, meaning that arrests by the agency have increased by 120% under the Trump administration.
The statistics indicate that Texas saw nearly a quarter of all ICE arrests during that time period. About 11% of ICE arrests occurred in Florida and 7% in California, followed by 4% in Georgia and 3% in Arizona. ICE made the fewest arrests in Vermont, Alaska and Montana, about 100 total apprehensions combined.
The locations of a small percentage of the arrests could not be discerned from the dataset, which was obtained by a group known as the Deportation Data Project through litigation.
Overall, the individuals arrested by ICE between Jan. 20 and June 27 came from nearly 180 countries, but most were from Latin America or the Caribbean, according to the data.
Mexico was the most common country of citizenship, with nearly 40,000 of those taken into ICE custody listed as Mexican citizens. Nationals of Guatemala and Honduras followed with around 15,000 and 12,000, respectively. Nearly 8,000 were citizens of Venezuela and over 5,000 of El Salvador.
Immigration experts said the concentration of arrests in Southern and border states is not necessarily surprising and can largely be attributed to geography, demographics and the extent to which local law enforcement agencies cooperate with ICE.
Kathleen Bush-Joseph, a policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, explained that ICE tends to focus its resources in areas where local policies permit law enforcement interaction with federal immigration authorities, such as Texas and Florida. Other places, like California, may also see high levels of ICE arrests because they have large communities of immigrants, including those in the U.S. illegally, even though state and local policies limit collaboration with ICE.
"It's easier for ICE to be picking people up from state and local jails where there's cooperation," Bush-Joseph said. In cities and states with so-called sanctuary policies, "ICE has to spend more resources picking up people for at-large arrests," she added.
Bush-Joseph also noted the countries of origin for those arrested by ICE align with broader immigration trends. "Generally, we're talking about countries that are geographically close" to the U.S., she said.
Latin American and Caribbean immigrants accounted for 84% of all unauthorized immigrants living in the U.S. in 2023, according to a recent report from the Migration Policy Institute.
ICE is responsible for arresting, detaining and deporting immigrants living in the U.S. illegally, as well as other noncitizens who lose their legal status, including because of criminal activity. The agency has been given a sweeping mandate by Mr. Trump, tasked with carrying out his campaign promise of overseeing the largest mass deportation effort in American history.
Under the Trump administration, ICE has reversed Biden-era limits on arrests in the interior of the country and allowed deportation agents to arrest a broader group of individuals, including those who are in the U.S. illegally but who lack a criminal record.
Todd Lyons, the acting ICE director, told CBS News recently that while his agents are still prioritizing the arrest of violent offenders who are in the U.S. illegally, anyone found to be in the country in violation of federal immigration law will be taken into custody.
Halfway into Mr. Trump's first year back in the White House, ICE recorded 150,000 deportations, putting the agency on track to carry out the most removals since the Obama administration, over a decade ago, CBS News reported. The tally is still far short of the 1 million annual deportations Trump officials have said they're targeting.