In the first nine months of the Trump administration, a jump in the number of immigration-related street arrests led to an increase in the number of deportations initiated inside the U.S. —and away from the border — by more than four and a half times, according to a new report.
Researchers from the University of California Berkeley found that Immigration and Customs Enforcement transfers of people from criminal custody to ICE custody as well as street arrests — people who were not in jail at the time — quadrupled over that period.
Much of that steep increase was attributable to street arrests rising by more than a factor of 11 — according to the analysis by the Deportation Data Project at UC Berkeley, a group of academics and lawyers that collect, post and analyze government immigration enforcement data.
Even though the overall number of people under ICE custody increased, the people they arrested in this nine-month period were less likely to have criminal convictions. This resulted in a sevenfold increase in arrests of people with no convictions, according to the report.
“For both transfers and street arrests, the Trump administration’s decision to stop prioritizing arrests based on factors such as criminal convictions (or to prioritize less) resulted in another well-known trend: the huge increase in the number of arrests of noncitizens not convicted of any crime,” the report said.
Arrests of people with convictions also went up, about 30%, but not as much as those without convictions.
President Donald Trump, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and other administration officials have repeatedly said the president’s mass deportation agenda and his administration’s immigration enforcement activities prioritize and target the “worst of the worst.”
NBC News has reached out to the administration about the report’s findings.
Along with more arrests, ICE had more room to hold immigrant detainees: When arrests at the border fell, it freed up space to hold more immigrants arrested and detained within the U.S. The administration adopted rules such as limiting bond and kept more immigrants detained while they fought their immigration cases, according to the report.
The administration also roughly tripled detention beds, using an infusion of increased funding from Congress, and few of those arrested were released.
In the last six months of the Biden administration, about 16% of releases occurred within 60 days of arrest. That fell to 3%, the report said.
Deportations within two months of detention rose from 55% to 69%, largely because of the lower release rate, the report states. Voluntary departures rose by more than 21 times.
“The increase in detention space and immigrants’ decisions not to fight their cases from detention help explain why, even as ICE arrested people who would be more likely to win their cases, such as those without any criminal convictions, the deportation rate among arrestees shot up,” the report states.
