Immigration and Customs Enforcement brokers have arrested 811 immigrants in New York Metropolis since August who occurred to be within the flawed place on the flawed time. Of those “collateral” arrests — because the company calls them — 85% concerned folks with no felony historical past, in accordance with newly obtained ICE information.
THE CITY had reported on a number of examples of these arrests, together with that of a 28-year-old development employee on the streets of Corona, Queens whereas he was headed to work one morning. Brokers claimed they’d been in search of his neighbor, however they took him as an alternative.
General, these “collateral” arrests accounted for twenty-four% of all ICE arrests in New York Metropolis from August 2025 by March 10.
The Division of Homeland Safety, which oversees ICE, has repeatedly stated up to now that it’s centered on arresting “the worst of the worst” whereas frequently posting photographs of immigrants convicted of crimes that ICE has arrested.
But even of the two,491 folks ICE focused for arrest in New York Metropolis since August, 73% had no felony convictions or pending costs.
The ICE arrest information analyzed by THE CITY was obtained by the Deportation Knowledge Venture by a Freedom of Info Act lawsuit and covers immigration arrests by March 10. It consists of, for the primary time, ICE’s personal dedication of whether or not an individual was detained as a part of a “focused” operation or as a “collateral” arrest.
Whereas the ICE information doesn’t materially describe the place or how an individual was arrested, THE CITY discovered many of those “focused” arrests passed off at ICE check-ins and immigration courtroom, the place brokers have been carrying an inventory of names and staking out hearings to detain immigrants since final yr.
Requested in regards to the newest ICE arrest information, an unnamed spokesperson disputed the company’s personal data.
“This story solely reveals how the media manipulates information to hawk a false narrative that DHS isn’t focusing on the worst of the worst,” the spokesperson stated, pointing to a number of examples on DHS’s web site of individuals arrested who had been wished for crimes in different international locations.
“Nationwide, our legislation enforcement is focusing on the worst of the worst felony unlawful aliens — together with murderers, rapists, gang members, pedophiles, and terrorists,” including that “70% of unlawful aliens ICE arrested throughout the nation have felony convictions or pending felony costs.”
ICE’s personal information launched by the Deportation Knowledge Venture, nonetheless, reveals these folks accounted for 59% of arrests nationwide since August, in accordance with THE CITY’s evaluation.
In New York Metropolis, that share was even decrease: Simply 24% of the three,191 folks ICE arrested had felony convictions or pending costs, whereas 76% had no felony historical past.
“This statistic doesn’t account for these wished for violent crimes of their house nation or one other nation, INTERPOL notices, human rights abusers, gang members, terrorists, and so on. The listing goes on,” the spokesperson stated.
Advocates slammed the newest figures, saying it was one other indication of a legislation enforcement company needing to be reigned in.
“The Trump administration isn’t focused on truly delivering on what they are saying, which is making our communities extra safer and safe,” stated Murad Awawdeh, the president and CEO of the New York Immigration Coalition. “They’re aimlessly, racially profiling folks, however they’re in search of anybody that they will detain to allow them to meet their idiotic quotas.”
Border Czar Tom Homan has lengthy reasoned that sanctuary cities like New York would face extra of those “collateral arrests” as a result of ICE isn’t allowed to enter native jails or coordinate with native police for the needs of immigration enforcement.
“If you launch a public security risk out of a sanctuary jail they usually received’t give us entry to him, which means we obtained to go to the neighborhood and discover him, and we’ll discover him, however once we discover him, he could also be with others,” Homan stated shortly after Donald Trump took workplace in 2025. “Others that don’t have a felony conviction and are within the nation illegally, they are going to be arrested too.”
However ICE’s personal information reveals a extra sophisticated image.
The company’s information suggests the next fee of “collateral” arrests outdoors of jails and prisons within the Hudson Valley and on Lengthy Island, the place sanctuary legal guidelines are typically much less protecting in direction of immigrants or don’t exist in any respect, and the place native police typically help ICE.
The collateral arrest charges for the area’s particular jurisdictions, nonetheless, can solely be approximated as a result of ICE didn’t reveal in its information the particular counties the place it processed 1,719 arrests downstate since August.
General, ICE labeled roughly 36% of immigration arrests outdoors jails and prisons in Lengthy Island and alongside the Hudson Valley as much as Ulster County since August as “collateral”, in comparison with roughly 25% of such arrests in New York Metropolis.
Immigrant advocates have been pushing state lawmakers to go a invoice known as New York for All, which might prolong sanctuary protections like these in New York Metropolis to the remainder of the state, restrict cooperation between native legislation enforcement and ICE brokers.
“You’ll suppose that the naked minimal that our state may do is go the New York for All act that may prohibit the collusion of native legislation enforcement, which can also be racially profiling folks for the aim of handing them over to ICE across the state,” Yasmine Farhang, the Director of the Immigrant Protection Venture.
The most recent information signifies ICE’s arrest surge final summer season — when masked brokers had been grabbing folks at immigration courts and staking out check-in workplaces — stays the height of the company’s enforcement efforts so far within the 5 boroughs.
Arrests slowed for a time period following a federal courtroom order final August limiting the variety of folks ICE may detain without delay inside 26 Federal Plaza holding cells — earlier than choosing up once more between October and December, when THE CITY reported on an obvious enhance in arrests on the road.
ICE arrests then declined in New York Metropolis within the weeks after DHS brokers surged into Minneapolis in December in an effort dubbed “Operation Metro Surge”, the place they later killed two protesters in January — Renee Good and Alex Pretti. Collateral arrests, specifically, have dropped dramatically since Pretti’s killing in late January, with just some per week, in comparison with dozens of every week logged within the fall.
Division of Homeland Safety Secretary Kristi Noem and Customs and Border Patrol Commander at Giant Greg Bovino had been each ousted within the aftermath of that politically unpopular operation. Honan was given a extra outstanding function as Trump confided to members of his inside circle that the mass deportation efforts could have gone too far, the Wall Avenue Journal reported.