Donald Trump's 2024 presidential campaign and subsequent presidential administration have emphasized the issue of immigration in the United States, promising mass deportations. Trump and his administration have sought to increase federal coordination in immigration enforcement and remove obstacles to the deportation and removal of immigrants from the United States. Shifts in enforcement have resulted in more aggressive, "showy sweeps" and violent confrontations compared to more targeted operations in past administrations.
2025
January On January 7, the day that the United States Congress certified Trump's election win, United States Border Patrol agents raided agricultural areas in Kern County, California, arresting 78 people. Border Patrol said it was targeting known criminals, but a subsequent investigation revealed that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) had no prior information about criminal records or immigration status for 77 of those arrested.
On January 23, high-profile US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids occurred in Atlanta, Boston, Denver, Miami, New York City, Newark, Philadelphia, Seattle, and Washington, D.C., detaining 538 people. The mayor of Newark claimed that ICE raided a local establishment and detained undocumented immigrants as well as citizens, including a veteran, without a warrant.
On January 24, a 52 year old man was taken into ICE custody after being released from prison following the completion of his sentence stemming from a 2023 sexual assault. The man had entered the US legally in 1999.
On January 27, eight Navajo citizens were lined up behind ICE vans and questioned for two hours during a raid on their worksite in Scottsdale, Arizona. One woman was eventually allowed to text her family, who sent copies of her identification that resulted in her release from ICE questioning.
In the early morning of January 28, United States secretary of homeland security Kristi Noem joined multiple federal law enforcement agencies, including ICE, to lead an immigration raid in New York City. Her department posted a video of the raid on X that showed an apparent arrest, later confirming the suspect was in custody on kidnapping, assault, and burglary charges with an outstanding warrant in Colorado.
February
On February 11, a Guatemalan construction worker was arrested by ICE at his job site in Beaverton, Oregon, leaving his fiancée as the sole provider for their 22-month-old daughter. His family had to move out of their rented apartment and abandon many of their belongings after he was detained, being unable to afford the rent. The man was deported in 2017 following a 2015 reckless driving charge that was dismissed after he completed a diversion program. He re-entered the country after 2017. His employer vouched for his character and called his deportation "an injustice."
On February 20, ICE agents entered a shelter in Brooklyn, New York masked and armed, in violation of the city's sanctuary policies, and intimidated staff in order to arrest a 30 year old Venezuelan national without a judicial warrant.
In late February, Lewelyn Dixon, a 64-year-old University of Washington lab technician who has had legal permanent resident status in the U.S. for 50 years, was arrested by ICE after returning from a visit to the Philippines. She was detained at the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, Washington. She was released three months later, on May 27, after a judge ruled that she did not qualify for deportation.
March
On March 3, ICE arrested a Honduran man in Connecticut who had entered the country illegally for the third time in 2024. He was arrested by Connecticut state police in September 2024 and released on bond ahead of a July 2025 court case where he faced child abuse charges.
On March 7, ICE arrested and interrogated Fabian Schmidt, a 34-year-old German national who is a legal permanent U.S. resident, at Boston Logan International Airport. He was held at the Wyatt Detention Center in Central Falls, Rhode Island. Schmidt had faced misdemeanor charges a decade earlier, but had no active legal or court issues. He was released on May 8 after two months in federal custody.
On March 15, 23 year old Ruben Ray Martinez was shot and killed by DHS agents during a traffic stop. News of DHS's involvement in the shooting was not made public until February 2026. Martinez and his friend Joshua Orta, both US citizens, were traveling to the South Shore of Texas for a spring break trip when they encountered a checkpoint manned by state police and Homeland Security Investigations. Martinez was shot through his open driver-side window while trying to navigate the checkpoint. DHS's claim that Martinez tried to run over an agent was disputed by Orta, the only independent witness to the events. Orta said that the car was "just crawling as we were trying to turn around" and that agents fired on Martinez without "giving any warning, commands, or opportunity to comply." Orta also said that the agents handcuffed Martinez after shooting him, and waited at least 10 minuted before attempting to render any medical aid. Orta was killed in a car accident in February 2026.
On March 25, ICE arrested Alireza Doroudi, a University of Alabama doctoral student from Iran. Doroudi was studying mechanical engineering on an F-1 visa. Doroudi's lawyer stated that he had not been charged with any crime and had not participated in anti-government protests. The University of Alabama chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine also said that he had not been involved in any protests with their organization. DHS claimed that Doroudi "posed significant national security concerns" but did not provide any further information. DHS did not present any evidence related to security concerns in court, and eventually moved to drop one of two charges related to Doroudi's visa status. However, after 41 days in detention, Doroudi requested on May 8, 2025 to be allowed to leave the United States rather than continue fighting his detention in court, despite assurances from his lawyer that he would easily win. His request was granted.
On March 27, immigration agents raided San Diego Powder & Protective Coatings, a government contractor, and arrested four employees as well as the company's general manager. The employees were accused of falsifying work documents, and the business was accused of knowingly hiring employees without work authorizations. Immigration authorities investigated the business after being given a tip by an ex-employee who was acting as an informant.
On March 27, ICE arrested Aditya Wahyu Harsono, a 33-year-old Indonesian man and father of an infant with special needs, at his hospital workplace in Marshall, Minnesota. Harsono's student visa was valid until June 2026 but was revoked by the US government without his knowledge. Harsono's lawyer claims that he was detained without clear explanation and interrogated for hours. Immigration judge Sarah Mazzie rejected a motion to dismiss his case on humanitarian grounds. Harsono is Muslim and frequently posts on social media in support of humanitarian relief for Gaza. He also runs a small non-profit, which sells art and merchandise, with proceeds going to organizations aiding Gaza. After the judge granted Harsono a $5,000 bond on April 10, the Minnesota Freedom Fund had been en route to pay it. But in a highly unusual move, DHS immediately filed a notice to appeal the bond decision, which triggered an automatic stay. Harsono was finally released on May 15 after two months in ICE custody.
April
In the early morning of April 1, ICE raided a child's birthday party in Texas, arresting 47 people, including nine children. Agents attacked families at the party with flash bang grenades. Despite government claims that the party was a Tren de Aragua meeting, a Texas Tribune investigation uncovered that none of the people arrested had gang ties or any criminal record.
On April 15, a Danish-born Mississippian welding foreman and father of four named Kasper Eriksen was detained during a citizenship hearing in Memphis, Tennessee. He had no criminal record and had been living in the United States since 2009, but was detained for neglecting to fill out Form I-751 in 2015. Eriksen has had a green card since 2013. He is held at the GEO Group-run LaSalle Detention Center in Louisiana and faces deportation.
On April 16, Juan Carlos Lopez-Gomez, a 20-year-old American citizen who speaks an indigenous language and is not fluent in English or Spanish, was arrested by Florida Highway Patrol on his way to work in Tallahassee when the car he was riding in was pulled over for speeding. He was charged with being an "unauthorized alien" in Florida and was released after spending a night in jail upon a hold request by ICE until a judge verified his birth certificate. He was arrested with two men under a Florida law that took effect in February and was still blocked by a federal judge at the time of the arrest.
On April 23, Rosmery Alvarado, a Guatemalan immigrant married to a recently naturalized U.S. citizen, was detained after arriving at a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) field office for what she was led to believe was the first step in her residency process. The family was then told that she would be deported within a few days. The family was also told that Alvarado had a deportation order from failing to appear in court when she was a youth in the 2000s, and that a new deportation order was issued the morning of her arrest. It was also reported that Alvarado had faced domestic violence charges in 2017 and 2019, but the cases were both dismissed, and it remains unclear whether this was in any way connected to the arrest.
On April 22, CBP arrested eight migrant dairy workers in Berkshire, Vermont. Three were later deported to Mexico.
On April 24, immigration agents raided a family's home in Oklahoma City and seized the residents' belongings, including laptops, phones, and cash, despite them being U.S. citizens who were not the targets of the warrant issued for the home. Assistant DHS secretary Trisha McLaughlin defended the raid, saying it was "ultimately a successful operation."
On April 27, ICE raided a nightclub in Colorado Springs, detaining more than 100 people. As of May 8, 18 had been removed from the United States, while 86 remained in ICE custody.
May On May 3 and 4, ICE agents worked with Tennessee Highway Patrol to carry out about 500 traffic stops in the Nashville, Tennessee, area, arresting 200 immigrants, the majority of whom did not have a criminal history. One of these was a pregnant woman who then had a miscarriage at the Richwood Correctional Center in Louisiana.
On May 12, six people were arrested in connection for allegedly killing Larisha Thompson in Lancaster, South Carolina on May 2. The response has been polarizing, with Thompson's sister criticizing Trump's deportation efforts of detaining the wrong people and targeting noncitizens, but not the criminals he promised to deport.
On May 14, 19 out of 27 people were detained by ICE after federal and local agencies executed a search warrant in a home in Washington City, Utah.
On May 15, Maximo Londonio, a Washington state man who came to the United States from the Philippines as a young child and is a green card holder, was detained by immigration agents as he returned from vacation with his family. He was detained at Seattle–Tacoma International Airport. The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), a trade union of which Londonio is a member, has called for his release. Londonio was held until July 14, after two months in custody and one month in solitary confinement.