Are Immigrants Without Criminal Records Being Arrested by ICE?

(TEXAS) — Immigration and Customs Enforcement held 68,289 people in detention on February 7, 2026, and 50,259 of them — 73.6% — had no criminal conviction on record, according to ICE data that points to a sharp rise in non-criminal arrests.

The figures show a detention system that has grown far beyond its level a year earlier. ICE held 41,169 people as of February 9, 2025.

Texas housed the largest share of detainees, with 18,734 people in custody as of early February 2026. Louisiana held 8,244, California 6,459, Florida 5,231 and Georgia 4,227.

January 2026 brought another surge. ICE facilities booked 39,694 people that month, including 36,099 from ICE arrests and 3,595 from Customs and Border Protection.

Detention Growth and Enforcement Priorities

The detention buildup has unfolded as the Trump administration broadened immigration enforcement in the interior of the country. Under the January 2026 DHS Priorities Memo, ICE expanded authority to pursue people with minor infractions, pending cases or prior removal orders, while DHS continued to describe public safety threats as a focus.

The data, however, shows a widening gap between that message and who ends up in custody. As of October 2025, only 30% of ICE arrests involved any criminal conviction, and by early 2026, nearly three-quarters of detainees had no criminal conviction on record.

In ICE data, that category covers people with no criminal convictions or pending charges beyond immigration violations, including unlawful presence under the Immigration and Nationality Act. Minor traffic violations or administrative issues often do not count as criminal for prioritization, though they can still factor into discretionary arrests.

Independent analyses cited in the data say even low-level misdemeanors can appear in some criminal tallies. The larger pattern, though, is that most people counted as non-criminal detainees face civil immigration issues.

Average daily ICE arrests reached 821 in the first 10 months of 2025, up 170% from Biden’s final year. In Trump’s first 10 months of 2025, 37% of record-high arrests targeted people with convictions, down from 52% previously.

That shift has fed concerns that ICE detention is drawing in more people who are not the public safety threats the administration says it prioritizes. Economists cited in the data described an inverse relationship between higher arrest totals and a criminal focus.

Facilities in Texas sit near the center of the expansion. El Paso Camp East Montana averaged 2,954 detainees per day, the highest in FY 2026, ahead of sites in Natchez, Lumpkin, Adelanto and Pearsall.

Worksite, Community and Court Arrests

Worksite enforcement has also intensified. Through 2025, ICE issued over 5,200 I-9 audits, with fines up to $30,000 per violation.

One of the largest operations came at the 2025 Hyundai battery plant in Georgia, where authorities detained 475 workers. The data also points to growing enforcement pressure in construction and other labor-heavy sectors.

Community arrests have climbed alongside jail pickups. By August 2025, ICE averaged over 500 jail arrests daily, while community arrests peaked at 700 in May-June.

Connecticut offers one example of how those arrests are occurring. Of 632 apprehensions there in 2025, 49% took place at Hartford immigration courts.

Arrests of people with no convictions but pending charges also rose sharply. They increased 600% from 2024, when the figure was 45, to 2025, when it reached 319 through October.

Metro areas recorded steep increases. Atlanta arrests rose 228%, while ICE expanded to 30 new cities such as Raleigh, North Carolina, and added 25% more officers, to about 12,000 by year-end.

The DHS projections tied to that buildout were broad. They pointed to 150,000+ people affected nationally, including 7,500 in North Carolina.

Impact on Communities, Detention, and Legal Process

The reach of those operations has raised stakes for immigrants with no criminal conviction on record, especially in mixed-status families and communities where many residents have long lived and worked in the United States. The data describes warrantless arrests in homes, workplaces and neighborhoods during surge operations, along with collateral arrests during raids and field actions.

In Raleigh’s 50,000-undocumented community, the enforcement climate has deterred school attendance, healthcare and work, according to the data. Agriculture and construction were identified as sectors under strain.

Detention can move quickly after arrest. The data says some EOIR hearings in early 2026 lasted as little as 30 minutes, shortening the time people have to secure legal help.

Advocacy groups and researchers have also pointed to conditions inside detention. The material cites reports of punishment for medical requests, guard intimidation and family separations at the time of arrest.

Congress backed the enforcement buildup with new funding. Lawmakers boosted ICE’s budget to $10 billion in March 2025 and $170 billion through July reconciliation, while 2026 proposals called for more detention beds.

Outside physical custody, ICE also supervised a far larger pool through Alternatives to Detention. As of February 7, 2026, ATD covered 179,991 people, 2.6 times the number in physical detention.

San Francisco had the largest ATD population, with 20,504 people under monitoring. Combined with those in detention, the total reached 248,280.

That imbalance between physical detention and supervised release has sharpened debate over whether ATD could reduce family separation and pressure on ICE facilities. Advocates have pushed alternatives to detention as a way to avoid trauma while immigration cases move ahead.

The non-detained docket has grown at the same time. It stood at 7.6 million by the end of FY 2024.

Legal protections remain uneven. The 2022 consent decree in Castañon Nava v. DHS, extended to February 2026, placed limits on warrantless arrests, with enforcement motions filed in March and October 2025.

Local policy still matters in many cases. ICE detainers are requests rather than mandatory holds, and sanctuary policies can limit how much local authorities share or cooperate.

For employers, the risks now extend beyond hiring paperwork. The data points to civil and criminal liability concerns, halted operations and growing attention to records, compliance training and raid preparation.

Inter-agency coordination has widened as well. The material cites IRS data-sharing under the April 7, 2025, ICE-IRS MOU as part of a broader enforcement push.

Researchers at CU Boulder and Berkeley have criticized the widening net, arguing that enforcement is reaching far beyond dangerous targets. Their analysis aligns with the arrest and detention figures showing that non-criminal arrests now make up a large share of the system.

The numbers also suggest the government faces logistical limits even as it expands. With about 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States, the current pace — including a 40% arrest rise in January 2026 compared with 2025 — would require years of sustained enforcement while drawing more resources into lower-level cases.

That raises questions about focus as ICE adds field offices and builds local partnerships. The data says more field offices are expected by August, alongside intensified collaboration with local agencies and the possibility of new legislation.

Deportations from detention have also remained high. The figure stood at 14.3 per release as of November 2025.

For immigrants and families, the impact is less abstract than the statistics. A person can have no criminal conviction on record and still face arrest at work, at home or while appearing in immigration court.

That reality has reshaped the meaning of enforcement priorities in 2026. On paper, DHS still points to threats to public safety; in practice, ICE detention now holds tens of thousands of people whose records reflect immigration violations rather than criminal convictions.

The latest ICE numbers capture that shift in stark terms. In a detention system led by Texas and driven by record bookings, non-criminal arrests have become central to how the federal government is enforcing immigration law.