Arrests, deportations, and detention capacity expand sharply, with non-criminal migrants increasingly targeted.

Migrant detentions in the United States increased elevenfold during the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term, according to a study by the University of California, Berkeley, which reports a 1,000 percent rise in arrests.

The analysis, conducted by the university’s Deportation Data Project, describes the surge as a “novel phenomenon,” driven in part by expanded enforcement in immigration courts and local offices of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The findings compare the final six months of the Joe Biden administration (2021–2025) with data through March 2026.

The report indicates that arrests resulting from transfers of detainees from jails and prisons—previously the main source of ICE detentions—nearly doubled over the past year. At the same time, the likelihood of ICE targeting individuals with criminal records declined significantly. This shift contributed to an eightfold increase in detentions of people without prior criminal records, with arrests in this group rising by 770 percent during Trump’s second term.

Text Reads: Se registra un repunte masivo de arrestos migratorios en el área metropolitana de Washington 🚨 Desde el comienzo del segundo mandato del presidente Donald Trump hasta marzo de este año, el Servicio de Inmigración y Control de Aduanas (ICE, por sus siglas en inglés) detuvo a casi 20.000 personas en Maryland, Virginia y el Distrito de Columbia, según reportó el diario The Washington Post a partir de cifras oficiales.

The increase in detentions translated into a fivefold rise in deportations. Researchers attribute this to expanded detention capacity and a sharp reduction in releases. The administration increased detention bed capacity by more than fourfold for individuals arrested within the United States.

Release within 60 days of detention, a common practice for individuals without criminal records during the Biden administration, became rare, occurring in only seven percent of cases. Meanwhile, the proportion of deportations carried out within two months of detention doubled, rising from 27 percent to 57 percent. The study identifies reduced release rates as a primary factor behind the increase in deportations.

The report also notes that “many more people opted to abandon their cases,” as reflected in voluntary departures and returns, which increased twenty-eightfold. Although there was a slight decline in enforcement operations in February and early March 2026 following the killings of U.S. citizens Renée Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, researchers state that this did not significantly alter broader enforcement patterns.

Text Reads: Donald Trump removes Kristi Noem from the Department of Homeland Security, who, through ICE, was responsible for the crackdown on migrants. The most controversial cases are the deaths of Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good.

In January alone, more than 73,000 migrants were arrested, marking the highest monthly figure since the creation of the Department of Homeland Security in 2001. The study also reports that more than 6,200 children were detained over the past year.

Since 2017, at least 37 people of different Latin American nationalities have died while in ICE custody, during a period marked by the tightening of anti-immigration measures.

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