When Donald Trump returned to the White House, he promised to carry out the largest deportation campaign in U.S. history. A little more than a year later, the data show that the change was not limited to an increase in the number of people arrested or detained: the way ICE operates within the country also changed.
A report published by the Deportation Data Project, using ICE data obtained through public records requests, concluded that deportations stemming from ICE arrests within the United States increased fivefold during the first year of Trump’s second administration. The analysis compares the final six months of Joe Biden’s administration with the recent peak in January 2026.
According to the report, ICE arrests that resulted in detention increased 4.4 times. But the biggest change occurred in arrests made outside jails and prisons: so-called “street arrests,” which include operations in communities, immigration courts and routine appointments at ICE offices, increased 11-fold.
For years, ICE relied heavily on transfers from local or state jails. In other words, people who were already detained for another reason were transferred to immigration custody. Under Trump’s second administration, those transfers also increased, but arrests in the community grew much faster.
ICE arrests of people without criminal convictions surge
The profile of the people arrested also changed. The Deportation Data Project found that arrests of immigrants without criminal convictions increased 8.7 times nationwide. By comparison, arrests of people with convictions for nonviolent crimes doubled, while arrests of people with convictions for violent crimes increased 37%.
That figure contradicts the idea that the increase in ICE activity is concentrated primarily on people with serious criminal records.
More detention and fewer releases
The increase in deportations cannot be explained solely by the growth in arrests. Detention capacity also increased, while releases declined.
According to the report, ICE quadrupled its use of detention beds for people arrested within the country: from a daily average of nearly 14,000 people in the second half of 2024 to around 57,000 in January 2026.
At the same time, it became much less common for people to be released while awaiting the resolution of their cases. Among those who had neither criminal convictions nor a prior final order of deportation, the share released within the first 60 days fell from 35% to 7%. In that same group, the likelihood of being deported within the first 60 days rose from 26% to 52%.
More than 60,000 people detained
The most recent data from TRAC Reports, at Syracuse University, show that as of April 4, 2026, ICE was holding 60,311 people in detention. Of those, 42,722, or 70.8%, had no criminal convictions.
TRAC also reported that 32,531 people entered immigration detention in March 2026: 29,606 were arrested by ICE and 2,925 by CBP. Texas was the state with the most people in immigration custody, followed by Louisiana, California, Florida and Georgia.
ICE arrests in North Carolina: More arrests and more local cooperation
In North Carolina, the increase in ICE activity is also evident.
An analysis by NC Local, based on data obtained by the Deportation Data Project, found that ICE made 6,374 arrests in North Carolina from Trump’s return to the presidency in January 2025 through March 10, 2026. That figure is nearly double the number recorded during the previous two years combined.
That figure comes alongside another significant change in the state: the expansion of cooperation between local agencies and ICE through the 287(g) program. North Carolina went from having 23 agencies with active agreements in September 2025 to 29 agreements by around March 2026. Several include the introduction of the “Task Force” model, the program’s broadest model, which allows local police to make immigration arrests as part of their routine patrols.
In North Carolina, two facilities have been especially significant in the immigration detention system: Alamance County Detention Center, in Graham, and New Hanover County Jail, in Castle Hayne. Both received people detained by ICE or transferred to immigration custody during much of 2025. However, on Nov. 16, 2025, Alamance Sheriff Terry Johnson ended his county’s agreement with ICE, citing the new state law “Iryna’s Law” and overcrowding at his jail. Since then, Alamance no longer houses long-term immigration detainees. However, it continues to hold people for up to 48 hours when ICE issues a “detainer.” Much of that flow shifted to New Hanover County Jail, which maintains its agreement with the U.S. Marshals Service that ICE can use.
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ICE arrests in North Carolina: “Charlotte’s Web,” the operation that multiplied cases
November 2025 was, by far, the month with the most arrests during the entire period: 787, nearly double the average of the previous months. That jump coincides with “Charlotte’s Web”, the operation led by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) that the Trump administration launched that month in the Charlotte area.
After the November peak, ICE arrests in North Carolina declined: 606 in December, 618 in January and 585 in February, although in all three cases they remained above the monthly average before the operation.
Charlotte, the new center of gravity for arrests in the state
The data also show a strong geographic concentration. Mecklenburg County and the ICE office located in Charlotte together account for more than one-third of all ICE arrests in North Carolina since January 2025. In November alone, the month of the operation, nearly one in three arrests in the state occurred at the ICE office in Charlotte.
287(g), by the numbers: Which counties cooperate most with ICE
Beyond specific operations such as “Charlotte’s Web,” there is a second channel of cooperation that operates continuously: 287(g) agreements between ICE and local law enforcement agencies.
Of the 6,540 arrests recorded through March 10, 2026, 9.1% of the total are directly linked to 287(g) cooperation, either because ICE’s own records classify the arrest under that program or because it occurred in a jail or area identified under that agreement. Unlike the November peak, this flow remained relatively stable throughout the period, with between 30 and 60 arrests per month.
Three counties account for the vast majority of those arrests: Cabarrus, Gaston and Henderson, each with more than 150 cases. In practice, they are the counties where the delegation of immigration enforcement functions to local police has the greatest impact, regardless of the fact that the official list of 287(g) agreements in the state is longer.
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