Washington Post Analysis Reveals ICE Shift from Jail Arrests to Community Raids

Washington Post analysis of government data reveals a fundamental shift in ICE enforcement strategy under the Trump administration: federal officers have moved away from arresting immigrants already held in local jails to aggressively tracking them down on streets and in communities across the country.

ICE arrests at local jails reached an average of 350 per day in late January 2025, then continued rising to more than 500 daily in August. However, arrests in other locations—homes, workplaces, courthouses, and public spaces—peaked in late May and early June at almost 700 per day, averaging over 600 daily in September.

Data from the Deportation Data Project shows that in the first nine months of Trump’s second term, ICE arrested more than 74,000 people with no criminal record—over one-third of total ICE arrests in that period. This contradicts administration rhetoric about targeting “criminal aliens” and reveals the true scope of mass deportation efforts targeting any undocumented person regardless of criminal history.

The number of people without criminal records arrested by ICE since June nearly tripled compared to earlier in 2025. This surge in community-based enforcement has created a climate of fear in immigrant communities, with people afraid to attend immigration court hearings, go to work, or send children to school.

ICE agents have conducted arrests at courthouses, regularly-scheduled immigration appointments, places of worship, schools, and other previously protected “sensitive locations.” Many raids involve sudden and unprovoked use of force, with masked agents seizing people without warning. The tactical shift represents a deliberate strategy to maximize fear and social disruption in immigrant communities rather than focus on individuals posing genuine public safety concerns.