ICE agents search a truck passenger, arresting him and the driver during a February arrest in Robbinsdale, Minnesota. Nearly a quarter of ICE arrests in recent months were “securities,” a category that raised legal questions rather than “targeted” arrests based on existing warrants or removal orders. (Photo: Nicole Neri/Minnesota Reformer)
A quarter of immigration arrests since August have been flagged by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement as “containment,” a type of arrest and detention that has been challenged in court as an end to civil rights circumvention.
Public outrage and lawsuits over arrests can quell large-scale pro-choice actions, but tens of thousands of people were arrested in this way between August and early March.
Immigration arrests are typically based on advance warrants that show an order of removal issued by an immigration court or evidence of a crime or charge that triggers the person’s deportation.
However, additional arrests can result from street sweeps and raids, in which a person is selected for questioning based on appearance or proximity to the person wanted on the warrant. The person could be detained if agents believe he or she is deportable and likely to flee if released.
Marked first-time additional arrests are reported from August through early March in ICE arrest data obtained by Deportation Data Project and analyzed by Stateline. There were approximately 64,000 additional arrests during this time, accounting for a quarter of the 253,000 total arrests made by ICE.
About 70% of secondary arrests were for only immigration-related crimes or violations, compared with 41% for arrests based on warrants. Less than 2% of people arrested under protective custody were convicted of a violent crime, a third of the rate for other arrests, and only 18% were convicted of any crime compared to 33% for other arrests.
Additional arrests contributed to an overall decline in arrests for stern crimes, and a greater decline in arrests for immigration crimes alone.
Arrests rose from about 12,000 in January 2025 to more than 40,000 in December, but dropped to 30,000 in February. The percentage of people who committed only immigration-related crimes and violations rose to more than half in December and January, the months with the highest number of secondary arrests, and the percentage of violent offenders dropped from 10% to 4% of arrests during that time.
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New policy
In January, ICE announced a recent policy issue warrants in real time if agents believe the immigrant is deportable and “likely to flee,” although that policy is facing legal action.
Arrests and additional arrests have been failing since December, either because of the recent policy or because of cuts in the large-scale street sweeping operations that usually cause them.
One factor is public outrage over raids rounding up non-criminals in places like Minneapolis and Chicago, says Colleen Putzel-Kavanaugh, deputy policy analyst at the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute.
“It appears that the type of large operations that are being conducted in large cities as they occur have diminished somewhat,” Putzel-Kavanaugh said. “After the public outcry in Minneapolis, it appears that, at least for now, these tactics have been put on hold to some extent.”
She added that the Trump administration’s focus on mass deportations has opened the door to more additional street arrests with fewer investigations.
“If it was a more targeted arrest, some time would be spent on basically investigating. It’s a resource-intensive way that just wouldn’t produce the numbers that ICE was told to do,” she said.
The recent policy was outlined in court documents in February as a response to a lawsuit over ICE action in the District of Columbia last year. alleged ICE agents “they flooded the streets of the nation’s capital, arresting indiscriminately without warrants or probable cause District residents whom agents perceive as Latino.”
The case ended A preliminary injunction in December ordering an end to warrantless arrests without a finding of probable cause that the person is living here illegally and is a flight risk.
One of the plaintiffs in the class action lawsuit, José Escobar Molina, stated in the lawsuit that on August 21, agents in two cars approached him as he approached his company truck, grabbed him by the arms and legs and handcuffed him, without asking any questions. Escobar, 47, testified in court documents that he has lived in the neighborhood for 25 years and has been receiving transient protection as a resident of El Salvador all that time. He was held overnight in Virginia before being released.
Other lawsuits also challenge additional arrests, such as incident in Idaho in which agents with arrest warrants for five people arrested 105 immigrants during a Latino community event in October.
In North Carolina in February, four U.S. citizens and a visa holder were suedclaiming they were arrested in November in connection with the Charlotte’s Web immigration raid without warrants, which is typical of additional arrests.
I’m very afraid this will happen to me again. I was basically kidnapped solely because of the color of my skin. This really weighs on me.
– Yoshi Cuenca Villamar, US citizen arrested while landscaping
“I’m very afraid that this will happen to me again. I was basically kidnapped solely because of the color of my skin. It really weighs on me,” said Yoshi Cuenca Villamar, one of the citizens and a resident of North Carolina, in statement announcing the lawsuit. He said he was doing landscaping work on Nov. 15 when agents pushed him to the ground and handcuffed him, then held him in a car before releasing him.
One Illinois case which began during the first Trump administration, challenged warrantless arrests and traffic stops used as a pretext for immigration arrests. The 2022 settlement required ICE to document “reasonable suspicion” of illegal status before arresting an individual. The case has been going on for approx judge found in February that ICE’s recent policy of issuing arrest warrants in real time after arrest violates the consent decree.
Involved in additional arrests
In the months since August, which currently mark additional arrests, the District of Columbia and Illinois stand out for high rates of additional arrests. More than half of arrests in this district were incidental, as were 41% of arrests in Illinois. In eight states, at least 30% of arrests were secondary: Alabama, Maryland, West Virginia, Arizona, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Maine and Minnesota.
West Virginia, where it existed “statewide growth” immigration enforcement in January with state and local cooperation, stands out for its high overall arrest rate as well as its high share of additional arrests.
ICE described 1,300 arrests during Operation Metro Surge as ‘containment’
According to the most recent data available, 1,831 arrests were made in West Virginia in the eight months from August to early March, representing 1 in 10 of the state’s noncitizens in 2024. That’s by far the largest share in the country, followed by 7% in Wyoming (where truck drivers were targeted for immigration arrests in February) and 4% in Mississippi.
West Virginia Republican Gov. Patrick Morrisey in a statement cited state and local agencies’ cooperation with ICE through 287(g) program that helps enforce immigration law. He praised ICE, saying they “have removed dangerous illegal immigrants from our communities and made our state safer for families and law-abiding citizens.”
However, few of those arrested in this wave were violent criminals. More than half of those arrested during the surge were secondary arrests, and only 1% – nine immigrants – were convicted of violent crimes, according to a Stateline analysis. More than three-quarters, or about 500 people, had only committed an immigration-related violation or crime.
Justices have not always agreed that additional arrests and detentions during a surge in West Virginia are legal under the U.S. Constitution. U.S. District Judge Joseph Goodwin, a Clinton appointee, ordered two prisoners were released in January. He noted that “similar seizures and detentions occur frequently throughout the country” without any evidence that they are necessary as required by the Constitution.
Stateline reporter Tim Henderson can be reached at: thenderson@stateline.org.
This story was originally produced by state linewhich is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network that includes the Ohio Capital Journal and is supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.
