Since Donald Trump took office, three out of every five arrests made by ICE in New York were of individuals who were neither convicted of a crime nor had any pending criminal charges, reveals an analysis by Documented of ICE data.
The data also shows that in 2025, New York has been the state with the highest proportion of ICE arrests of immigrants without any criminal record.
There have been 7,258 arrests recorded by ICE in New York state since Trump took office on January 20 of this year. 60% of those arrests, or 4,381 of them, were of individuals who were neither convicted of a crime nor had pending criminal charges, according to Documented’s analysis of government data provided by ICE in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by the Deportation Data Project. The new tranche of data, published on Monday, includes information on all ICE arrests made nationwide from January 20 to October 15.
“The data confirms what we are seeing in our everyday lives in New York,” said Elora Mukherjee, Director of the Immigrants’ Rights Clinic at Columbia Law School.
Speaking to Documented, Mukherjee added, “The Trump administration’s claim that they’re going after the so-called worst of the worst is simply a lie.”
The proportion of arrests in New York state of individuals with no criminal background is far greater than the national tally under the Trump administration in 2025. Since January 20, there have been around 221,000 arrests recorded by ICE across the United States. Of them, 34% (around 74,000 arrests) have been of individuals with neither a conviction nor any pending criminal charges.
By contrast, in New York, that proportion jumps to 60% — which is the highest of all 50 states. Only four other states have a majority of the individuals arrested by ICE with no prior convictions or pending criminal charges: Virginia, Illinois, West Virginia and Maryland.
The District of Columbia and the Virgin Islands — notably not states — have a proportion that is higher than any of the states. In D.C., as many as 80% of the 1,236 arrests were of individuals without a criminal background, and in the Virgin Islands, it was 86 of the 131 arrests (66%).
ICE arrests at the city level
While the number of ICE arrests of immigrants with no criminal record is disproportionately high at the New York state level, the same is true at the city level. Of the ICE arrests that have taken place across New York State since Trump took office, 71% (5,174 out of 7,258) specifically took place in the area of responsibility that falls under the New York City ICE field office.
According to ICE’s website, the New York City Field Office is responsible for the five boroughs of NYC as well as the counties of Duchess, Nassau, Putnam, Suffolk, Sullivan, Orange, Rockland, Ulster, and Westchester.
Documented’s analysis of the New York City ICE field office shows that 58% (2,987 of the 5,174) of all ICE arrests made since Trump took office in January 2025 were of individuals with no criminal convictions or pending criminal charges.
Mukherjee, who is also a Faculty Fellow at the Deportation Data Project, said, “People are being arrested every day when they’re complying with their immigration check-ins, when they’re complying with their immigration court requirements, when they are doing everything that they’re supposed to do.”
New York’s Latino communities are being targeted
Nine of the top 10 countries whose nationals have been arrested by ICE in New York since Trump took office in January 2025 are Latin American.
Specifically, Ecuador has had the highest number of nationals arrested in the state, with 1,806 Ecuadorians arrested by ICE in New York since January 20. As many as 75% of the Ecuadorians who were arrested had no convictions or pending criminal charges. The country with the next highest number of nationals arrested is Mexico, with 738.
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A turning point
The number of arrests per month in New York state shot up drastically since June.
In June, there were more than 1,300 arrests recorded by ICE in the state, more than double the number of arrests in May.
On the nationalities targeted, the trends could soon change, Mukherjee cautioned. “What the data shows now may not reflect what is going to happen in the coming weeks and months,” she said. “We are likely to see a very severe crackdown on Afghan nationals as well as others from the 19 countries on the June 2025 travel ban list.”
