One In Four ICE Arrests in Trump Admin's First 5 Months Took Place In Texas, Data Shows

A CBS News analysis of government data confirms that most arrests made by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the first five months of President Trump's second term occurred in Southern and border states, continuing a long-standing pattern but at significantly higher levels.

ICE made more than 109,000 arrests between January 20 and June 27, a 120% increase from the 49,000 arrests made during the same period in 2024 under President Biden.

In all, Texas accounted for nearly 25% of all arrests, followed by Florida (11%), California (7%), Georgia (4%), and Arizona (3%). States with the fewest arrests—Vermont, Alaska, and Montana—registered only about 100 combined. The data was obtained by the Deportation Data Project through litigation.

The analysis also revealed other insights. The majority of individuals taken into custody, for example, were from Latin America or the Caribbean, with nearly 40,000 being Mexican nationals. Immigrants from Guatemala, Honduras, Venezuela, and El Salvador followed in smaller numbers.

The distribution of arrests also seems to reflect where ICE has greater operational access. "It's easier for ICE to be picking people up from state and local jails where there's cooperation," Kathleen Bush-Joseph of the Migration Policy Institute to CBS News. States like Texas and Florida tend to have policies that support ICE collaboration, whereas California, despite being a sanctuary state, sees high arrest numbers due to its large undocumented population.

Although acting ICE Director Todd Lyons has said the agency still prioritizes violent offenders he has also emphasized that "anyone found to be in the country in violation of federal immigration law will be taken into custody," and recent number back up that idea. Internal data obtained earlier this month by CBS News showed that only a small fraction of deportees had convictions for violent crimes.

In fact, of the 100,000 deported between January 1 and June 24, only 0.58% had homicide convictions, and just over 8% had assault convictions. ICE documents also showed that many of the charges were related to traffic or immigration violations.

While deportations under Trump have reached 150,000 so far this year, officials have stated their goal is one million annually.