Deportations, ICE Street Arrests Are Way Up — and So Are Arrests of Immigrants With No Criminal Convictions

In the first nine months of the Trump administration, a jump in the number of immigration-related street arrests led to an increase in the number of deportations initiated inside the U.S. —and away from the border — by more than four and a half times, according to a new report.

Researchers from the University of California Berkeley found that Immigration and Customs Enforcement transfers of people from criminal custody to ICE custody as well as street arrests — people who were not in jail at the time — quadrupled over that period.

Much of that steep increase was attributable to street arrests rising by more than a factor of 11 — according to the analysis by the Deportation Data Project at UC Berkeley, a group of academics and lawyers that collect, post and analyze government immigration enforcement data.

Even though the overall number of people under ICE custody increased, the people they arrested in this nine-month period were less likely to have criminal convictions. This resulted in a sevenfold increase in arrests of people with no convictions, according to the report.

“For both transfers and street arrests, the Trump administration’s decision to stop prioritizing arrests based on factors such as criminal convictions (or to prioritize less) resulted in another well-known trend: the huge increase in the number of arrests of noncitizens not convicted of any crime,” the report said.

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