ICE Arrests in NYC Peaked This July, But Many Immigrants Were Released the Same Day

Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests in New York City are once again surging, driven in part by an increase in people arrested and released the same day, new data covering the agency’s activity through early August shows.

The latest data, obtained by the Deportation Data Project through Freedom of Information Act lawsuits, offers new insights into the agency’s activity across the five boroughs — including neighborhood-level information for some arrests. Here’s what we know.

1) ICE Arrests Continue to Climb, But Many People Are Released the Same Day 

ICE arrests in New York City are surging, reaching 804 in July — a new high under Trump’s second term. But many of the people apprehended in New York City throughout the spring and summer were released that same day by ICE on what’s called “orders of recognizance.” 

Local immigration attorneys suspect these arrests reflect an increase in people reporting to ICE for the first time who had never been in deportation proceedings previously.

Allison Cutler, an immigration attorney with the New York Legal Assistance Group, said legal services groups began to get word of people getting called into ICE offices with their whole families for the first time starting this spring.

“A lot of us were kind of bracing ourselves. We were just doing safety planning,” she said. 

But in many of these cases, she said, families were served with a Notice to Appear in immigration court and released several hours later with paperwork from ICE telling them they’d been released on recognizance requiring they begin checking in with ICE regularly.

The uptick in arrests locally mirrors nationwide trends, with the agency making nearly 50,000 arrests across the country in July, the highest number in a single month during the Trump administration’s second term. The increase in same-day releases on orders of recognizance, however, did not take place to the same extent elsewhere.

ICE arrests dipped in the winter months in the aftermath of the fatal killings of Alex Pretti and Rene Good by Homeland Security agents during a surge in Minneapolis. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Customs and Border Patrol Chief Greg Bovino ousted shortly afterwards.

But ICE arrests have been on the rise since March under the new leadership of DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin. 

2) The Number of People Arrested with No Criminal History Is Also on the Rise

The spike in ICE arrests comes almost entirely from picking up people with no criminal convictions or charges. The numbers of people charged with a crime or convicted of one have remained flat throughout the second Trump administration, while the number of people arrested with no criminal records reached a new high in July.

3) Queens Neighborhoods Hit Hard

At least 2,153 people have been arrested in Queens since Trump’s second term — the most of any outer borough. More than 5,300 arrests were described simply as “New York,” which could include arrests at large ICE offices and immigration courts located in Manhattan. Another 56 were specifically tagged Manhattan. 

The Deportation Data Project latest release gives some specific geographic data for arrests, particularly for those arrests in Queens, where many arrests are tracked by specific neighborhoods. 

Jamaica saw 878 arrests since the start of the second Trump administration, a number that appears to include arrests at JFK airport. 

Corona followed with 217 arrests since Trump took office again. The City Reporter chronicled the concentration of street stops by ICE agents starting last fall that have rattled the neighborhood. Flushing and East Elmhurst were also hotshots, with arrests in the latter appearing to include those at LaGuardia airport. 

The new data also appears to capture a recent uptick in ICE arrests in College Point, reported on by The City Reporter, where 26 people were apprehended by ICE since the start of the year. 

After Queens, Brooklyn followed with at least 552 ICE arrests since the start of the Trump administration, followed by The Bronx with at least 510 arrests and at least 113 on Staten Island.

4) The Number of Deportations Is Climbing, Again

Deportations of people arrested within New York City surged last summer and peaked over the winter. Those numbers have been declining since January — until a recent spike in July.

Forty-nine children arrested in New York City were deported in July, ICE data shows.

5) More Children Are Being Arrested — But Then Quickly Released

In July, ICE arrested 175 children — more than any other month during Trump’s second term. But most of these children were released on their own recognizance within several hours of their arrest.

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