Immigration and Customs Enforcement brokers have arrested 811 immigrants in New York Metropolis since August who occurred to be within the mistaken place on the mistaken time. Of those “collateral” arrests — because the company calls them — 85% concerned folks with no prison historical past, in keeping 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 that they had been searching for his neighbor, however they took him as a substitute.
Total, these “collateral” arrests accounted for twenty-four% of all ICE arrests in New York Metropolis from August 2025 by means of March 10.
The Division of Homeland Safety, which oversees ICE, has repeatedly stated up to now that it’s targeted on arresting “the worst of the worst” whereas frequently posting images 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 prison convictions or pending costs.
The ICE arrest information analyzed by THE CITY was obtained by the Deportation Knowledge Mission by means of a Freedom of Info Act lawsuit and covers immigration arrests by means of 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 occurred at ICE check-ins and immigration court docket, the place brokers have been carrying a listing of names and staking out hearings to detain immigrants since final 12 months.
Requested concerning the newest ICE arrest information, an unnamed spokesperson disputed the company’s personal information.
“This story solely reveals how the media manipulates information to hawk a false narrative that DHS will not be concentrating on the worst of the worst,” the spokesperson stated, pointing to a number of examples on DHS’s web site of individuals arrested who have been needed for crimes in different nations.
“Nationwide, our regulation enforcement is concentrating on the worst of the worst prison unlawful aliens — together with murderers, rapists, gang members, pedophiles, and terrorists,” including that “70% of unlawful aliens ICE arrested throughout the nation have prison convictions or pending prison costs.”
ICE’s personal information launched by the Deportation Knowledge Mission, nevertheless, reveals these folks accounted for 59% of arrests nationwide since August, in keeping with THE CITY’s evaluation.
In New York Metropolis, that proportion was even decrease: Simply 24% of the three,191 folks ICE arrested had prison convictions or pending costs, whereas 76% had no prison historical past.
“This statistic doesn’t account for these needed for violent crimes of their house nation or one other nation, INTERPOL notices, human rights abusers, gang members, terrorists, and so on. The checklist goes on,” the spokesperson stated.
Advocates slammed the most recent figures, saying it was one other indication of a regulation enforcement company needing to be reigned in.
“The Trump administration will not be inquisitive about 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 searching for 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.
“While you launch a public security risk out of a sanctuary jail and so they received’t give us entry to him, meaning 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 prison 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 charge of “collateral” arrests outdoors of jails and prisons within the Hudson Valley and on Lengthy Island, the place sanctuary legal guidelines are usually much less protecting in the direction of immigrants or don’t exist in any respect, and the place native police usually help ICE.
The collateral arrest charges for the area’s particular jurisdictions, nevertheless, 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.
Total, ICE categorised 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 regulation enforcement and ICE brokers.
“You’d assume that the naked minimal that our state may do is go the New York for All act that will prohibit the collusion of native regulation 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 Mission.
The newest information signifies ICE’s arrest surge final summer time — when masked brokers have been grabbing folks at immigration courts and staking out check-in workplaces — stays the height of the company’s enforcement efforts to date within the 5 boroughs.
Arrests slowed for a time frame following a federal court docket order final August limiting the variety of folks ICE may detain without delay inside 26 Federal Plaza holding cells — earlier than selecting up once more between October and December, when THE CITY reported on an obvious improve 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, particularly, have dropped dramatically since Pretti’s killing in late January, with only a few 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 have been each ousted within the aftermath of that politically unpopular operation. Honan was given a extra distinguished function as Trump confided to members of his inside circle that the mass deportation efforts might have gone too far, the Wall Road Journal reported.
