In New York City, street arrests by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE), including arrests of those who have no criminal convictions, have skyrocketed since Donald Trump’s second term according to an analysis of ICE data by Documented.
This trend, which is also reflected nationally in a new report released by researchers at the Deportation Data Project, underscores evidence of a shift in tactics from targeted arrests to ICE “arresting anyone it can,” according to the authors of the report.
Documented’s analysis shows that street arrests in the greater New York City area grew by roughly 212% — from just over one thousand street arrests in the last six months of the Biden administration to over three thousand in the first six months under Trump.
During those same time frames, arrests of noncitizens also more than tripled, going from 901 under Biden to 2,888 under Trump.
Nationwide, arrests by ICE quadrupled during the last month of available data compared to the average month in the last half of 2024. Meanwhile, community arrests outside of jails grew by a factor of 11, reaching a peak of over 4,000 weekly arrests across the U.S. in July 2025.
When comparing the month before Trump’s inauguration to the last month of available data in late September and early October 2025, arrests of people without any criminal convictions also went up by a factor of seven, according to the University of California researchers who authored the report.
Arrests of people with nonviolent convictions — which could include anything from jaywalking and littering to tax evasion — doubled as well in those same time periods, according to the report.
Meanwhile, arrests at the border dropped.
“Street arrests at this order of magnitude are a new phenomenon,” wrote the authors. “For both types of arrests, ICE was much less likely to target people with criminal convictions. These changes led to over a sevenfold increase in arrests of people without criminal convictions.”
The research also showed that the chance to be freed from immigration detention has narrowed drastically. From July 2024 to July 2025 — roughly the last 6 months of Biden’s administration and the first 6 months of Trump’s term — the likelihood of release from detention within 60 days fell from 16 percent to 3 percent.
The most important change in detention policy is the Trump administration’s new position blocking immigrants who crossed the border undetected are not eligible for bond, said David Hausman, a researcher at U.C. Berkeley Law who helped author the report
Reporting by Documented showed that despite some judges rejecting ICE’s new bond policy, the immigration court system issued guidance to attorneys suggesting that judges ignore the rulings.
Report authors also pointed out that the heightened pressure and desperation felt by the increased numbers of people who are facing lengthy stays in detention may lead to an increase in voluntary departures. Voluntary deportations by immigrants from the United States increased by over 20 fold between July 2024 and July 2025, according to the DDP report.
你知道吗？非公民办理驾照时的这个错误可能会导致选民欺诈
In addition to a low release rate, reporting by Documented showed that as street arrests rose in July, immigration attorneys have become overburdened and underprepared, with many now requiring specialized training to challenge unconstitutional arrests in federal courts.
According to testimony by the New York Legal Assistance Group, immigrant New Yorkers detained with removal orders who received representation by the Rapid Response Legal Collaborative have an 88% success rate.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani has pledged an additional $165 million in immigration legal defense services.
