New Data Shows ICE Arrested 75,000 People With No Criminal Record As Trump-Era Detentions Surged Past 220,000

Newly released data shows a sweeping and deeply troubling escalation in ICE actions during the first nine months of the Trump administration, revealing that more than a third of the 220,000 people arrested had no criminal history at all. Nearly 75,000 people with no prior offenses were taken into custody, despite repeated claims from the administration that operations were focused on “murderers, rapists and gang members.” As Ariel Ruiz Soto of the Migration Policy Institute stated, “It contradicts what the administration has been saying... that they are going after the worst of the worst.” This contradiction exposes a harmful pattern of targeting people who pose no threat, punishing families and communities through fear-driven arrests rather than any legitimate public safety rationale.

These findings emerged through the University of California, Berkeley’s Deportation Data Project, which had to obtain the records via lawsuit because the administration stopped posting detailed information in January. That lack of transparency, paired with data showing indiscriminate arrests, raises serious concerns about fairness and intent. The ICE database does not even distinguish between minor and serious convictions among those who do have records, flattening the narrative in a way that obscures the truth and harms people who may have only committed low-level offenses; if any at all.

Even more alarming is that the data excludes arrests made by Border Patrol, which has deployed aggressive operations far beyond traditional border regions. Ruiz Soto called this expansion “the black box that we know nothing about,” stressing that the public still has no clarity on how many people Border Patrol is arresting or the conditions they face. This secrecy only intensifies the injustice, as families across cities like Chicago, Los Angeles, Charlotte, and New Orleans live in fear of sudden detention.

ICE officers are being pushed to escalate these arrests; reports say White House adviser Stephen Miller even threatened to fire agency leaders unless they reached 3,000 arrests per day. Still, the data shows ICE averaging 824 per day, numbers that reflect mass targeting of non-criminal community members rather than any focused public safety strategy.

These arrests have devastated workplaces, families, and communities. As Hispanic Construction Council CEO George Carrillo said, “Now even the most conservative Republicans are feeling it... because now it is affecting their businesses.” The human cost is even more profound; a widespread and unjust detention system currently holding 65,000 migrants, many of whom never should have been targeted in the first place.

Link: NBC