Immigration Arrests of People Without Criminal Convictions Have Increased Eightfold Under Trump, Report Says

Arrests of immigrants without criminal convictions by ICE have surged 770%, while street arrests saw a more than 1,000% increase during the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term, according to a new analysis released Tuesday.

The analysis by the Deportation Data Project at UC Berkeley found that ICE arrests more than quadrupled in that period, with transfers from jails and prisons roughly doubling. The much-increased street arrests took place in neighborhoods, at immigration court and at ICE field offices during regular immigration check-ins, the report said.

“Arrests not in jails or prisons at this order of magnitude are a new phenomenon. For both types of arrests, ICE was much less likely to target people with criminal convictions,” according to the analysis by the Deportation Data Project, which is led by a group of academics and lawyers that collect, post and analyze government immigration enforcement data.

The changes in enforcement led to a 770% increase in immigration arrests of people without criminal convictions, according to the analysis.

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“It’s well known that ICE has been pursuing a campaign of indiscriminate arrests, but it’s less well known that even as ICE has arrested more people who likely could win their cases and stay in the United States, arrests have been ending more often in deportation,” report author David Hausman, co-director of the Deportation Data Project and assistant professor of law at UC Berkeley, said in a statement. “One big factor is that detention causes people to give up on their cases.”

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