Filed Under:
Most ICE arrests under Trump involved those with no criminal convictions, new data shows
Newly released federal figures also show that more than 5,000 children were arrested by ICE, while Mexican and Guatemalan nationals made up the majority of arrests
Shelby Smith
Real journalists wrote and edited this (not AI). Independent, community-driven journalism survives because you back it. Donate to sustain Prism’s mission and the humans behind it.
Real journalists wrote and edited this (not AI)—independent, community-driven journalism survives because you back it. Donate to sustain Prism’s mission and the humans behind it.
Two-thirds of the nearly 400,000 arrests recorded by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) since President Donald Trump took office in January 2025 were of individuals without any criminal convictions, according to a Prism analysis of federal data. Thirty-eight percent of arrests were of individuals with neither any criminal convictions nor any pending criminal charges.
More than 5,200 arrests were of children under 18 years old. At least 490 of the arrests were of children under 5 years old.
“ICE does NOT target children,” a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson told Prism in an email statement after this article’s publication. The DHS did not respond to Prism’s question on why these children were arrested.
The total number of ICE arrests nearly tripled from 2024 to 2025, from around 111,000 to more than 321,000.
The findings are based on Prism’s analysis of federal government data provided by ICE in response to a Freedom of Information Act request by the Deportation Data Project, a research initiative by a team of academics and lawyers. The new tranche of data, published last week, includes information on ICE arrests nationwide up until March 10.
The analysis reveals the changes in the manner in which the Trump administration has gone about immigration enforcement, from a drastic rise in the proportion of ICE street arrests, to apprehensions of more individuals without any criminal record, and even the specific targeting of certain nationalities apparently based on contemporaneous political developments or Trump’s ire. The government data also continues to counter the Trump administration’s claims that its immigration enforcement operations are targeted at “the worst of the worst.”
“The data illustrates that the Trump administration’s war against immigrants continues to intensify,” said Murad Awawdeh, president of the New York Immigration Coalition, an advocacy organization that represents several immigrant and refugee rights groups. “This also illustrates that this has never been about safety and security. It has been about cruelty.”
The DHS spokesperson told Prism that the department has been arresting and deporting criminals.
“Many of the individuals that are counted as ‘non-criminals’ are actually terrorists, human rights abusers, gangsters and more; they just don’t have a rap sheet in the U.S.,” the spokesperson said.
Texas had the highest number of ICE arrests since Trump took office, at about 94,000. That figure was more than double the number of arrests in any other state, followed by Florida, California, New York, and Georgia. Six of the 10 states with the most ICE arrests voted Republican in the 2024 presidential election.
Yet, when it came to states with the highest rates of ICE arrests of individuals with no criminal record, 8 of the top 10 (including Washington, D.C.) voted for Democrats in the 2024 presidential election.
A surge in street arrests under Trump
Since the day Trump took office, about half of all ICE arrests (49%) were what researchers describe as “street arrests,” or ICE arrests made at places other than jails. This represents a dramatic increase from 2024, when the proportion was 27%.
ICE agents often apprehend immigrants by picking them up in local jails where they are being held on criminal charges or after being convicted of criminal offenses. But street arrests involve those made at other locations, such as worksites, homes, or a range of public places.
“For the two decades before 2025, ICE made very few such street arrests. Instead, ICE relied on transfers from jails and prisons for its interior enforcement,” researchers at the Deportation Data Project previously noted. Under Trump, the number and proportion of street arrests have surged, indicating a shift in tactics.
“We need every level of government to continue to stand up and to fight back because none of this is for the betterment of our country. It’s actually going to do the opposite, which is harm our families, harm our communities, and at the end of the day, harm our economy even further,” Awawdeh said. “So, it’s beyond time that our federal reps ensure that they claw back some of the $170 billion-plus budget that the DHS got under H.R. 1 [One Big Beautiful Bill Act], that they hold the Trump administration accountable.”
Majority of ICE arrests were of Mexicans and Guatemalans
Mexicans and Guatemalans have accounted for a majority of all ICE arrests under Trump’s second term. Mexican nationals alone made up almost 4 out of every 10 ICE arrests, or 155,803 out of 395,365 total arrests. The number of arrests of Guatemalan nationals was 55,206.
The 12 countries with the highest number of nationals arrested by ICE are from Latin America, making up 90% of all ICE arrests under Trump. They are followed by India and China.
The ICE database mentions one citizenship country next to each arrested immigrant. It is unclear how ICE determines which country to list in the data for individuals who have more than one citizenship.
From Iranians to Somalis, specific communities appear to be targeted
The data reveals a curious pattern of how and when particular communities and nationalities were targeted by Trump’s federal immigration agents.
After the U.S. entered the 12-day war between Israel and Iran on June 22, ICE disproportionately targeted Iranian immigrants, arresting 270 Iranians from that day until the end of July. No month under Trump has had more ICE arrests of Iranian nationals than that period. Prism previously reported on this surge in ICE arrests of Iranians.
Similarly, after Trump’s tirades against Somali immigrants in December, the number of ICE arrests of Somalis increased sharply. More Somali immigrants were arrested in December 2025 and January 2026 than in any other month before or since under the Trump administration.
At 144 arrests, ICE apprehended almost as many Somalis in those two months as it had in the more than 10 months under Trump until then (152 arrests through the end of November).
The highest number of ICE arrests within a calendar month under Trump was recorded this winter in December and January, with about 40,000 and 38,000 arrests respectively.
Editorial Team:
Sahar Fatima, Lead Editor
Lara Witt, Top Editor
Stephanie Harris, Copy Editor
