Donald Trump's 2024 presidential campaign and subsequent presidential administration have emphasized the issue of immigration in the United States, with promises of mass deportation being a notable component of Trump's rhetoric. 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. This article is a list of immigration raids and arrests in the second Trump presidency, with a focus on raids that have received local or national news coverage.
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. [1]
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 illegal immigrants as well as citizens, including a veteran, without a warrant. [2] [3] [4]
In the early morning of January 28, 2025, 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. [5]
In late February, Lewelyn Dixon, a 64-year-old University of Washington lab technician who had been a legal permanent status in the U.S. for 50 years, was arrested by ICE after coming back 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. [6]
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. [7] He was released on May 8 after two months in federal custody. [8]
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 denied that he had been involved in any protests with their organization. DHS claimed that Doroudi "posed significant national security concerns" but did not provide any further information. [9] 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. [10]
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 were tipped off about the business by an ex-employee who was acting as an informant. [11]
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 10 April, 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. [12] Harsono was finally released on May 15 after two months in ICE custody. [13]
On April 1 early in the morning, 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. [14] [15]
On April 15, a Danish-born Mississippian welding foreman and father of four 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. He is held at the GEO Group-run LaSalle Detention Center in Louisiana and faces deportation. [16]
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. [17]
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. [18] 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. [19] It was also reported that Alvarado has injured her husband in a domestic altercation a few years earlier, but the charges had been dropped and it remains unclear whether this was in any way connected to the arrest. [20]
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 US 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." [21]
On April 28, ICE raided a nightclub in Colorado Springs, detaining more than 100 people. [22] As of 8 May, 18 had been removed from the United States, while 86 remained in ICE custody. [23]
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. [24]
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. [25]
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. [26] The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), which Londonio is a member of, has called for his release. [27] Londonio was held until July 14th after two months in custody and one in solitary confinement.
On May 16, ICE arrested Roland Beaini, a Lebanese national who owns several Trump Burger locations in the Houston area. Beaini came to the United States legally, but allegedly overstayed a visa expiring in 2019. He now faces the threat of deportation. [28]
On May 20, ICE arrested 17 immigrants during a raid at Eagle Beverage in Kent, Washington, alleging the company illegally employed individuals without work authorization. [29] The action prompted an official response from 6 US representatives from Washington State expressing concern over the arrests in a letter dated from May 27. According to the letter, this might be the first ICE raid where IRS personnel was involved. [30]
On May 21, a Bronx high schooler and asylum seeker known pseudonymously as Dylan was arrested at what he believed would be a routine courthouse immigration check-in. Dylan was shuttled between four states in the first five days after his detention, making contact with his lawyers challenging. This was the first known instance of a New York City public school student being detained by ICE. [31]
On May 28, the neighbors of a Honduran man living in Tucson for more than a decade said that ICE agents impersonated utility workers in an attempt to apprehend him. [32]
On May 29, ICE detained a 50-year-old Los Angeles father and his 9-year-old son during a routine immigration check in. They were sent to a detention facility run by CoreCivic in Texas, prompting concerns from Torrance Elementary School teachers and parents over the disappearance of one of their students. [33]
On May 30, ICE agents arrested 36 Chinese and Taiwanese citizens at an underground nightclub in Los Angeles. [34] That afternoon, an ICE raid occurred at the Buono Forchetta Italian restaurant in South Park, San Diego. A Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesman said they were "executing a criminal search warrant." [35] About 30 ICE Agents, joined by the San Diego Police Department (SDPD), handcuffed every employee, according to witnesses. [34] Three were taken away in handcuffs. [36] The agents had been acting on a five-year-old tip made in 2020, [37] were met with resistance from community members and used flash bangs and smoke grenades to disperse the crowd. [38] [39]
On May 31 in Milford, Massachusetts, an 18-year-old high school student was detained by ICE while driving with his friends to volleyball practice. A passenger in the car said that the person detained had not violated traffic laws or done anything to warrant being pulled over. The raid was denounced by Milford Public Schools and the Milford Police Department said it had no foreknowledge that the raid would take place. A protest took place after the school's graduation. [40]
In late May and early June, ICE agents arrested nearly 20 people in Norristown, Pennsylvania as they began an aggressive enforcement action throughout Montgomery County. Several members of the city council condemned the raids. An immigrant rights activist said that agents were entering homes without warrants, intimidating people into opening their doors and using facial recognition technology to identify arrestees. [41]
On June 4, immigrants received text messages inviting them to a routine appointment in the South Loop of Chicago. More than a dozen were arrested when they showed up. [42] [43]
On June 4, a construction worker and legal resident was detained by federal agents in Lynn, Massachusetts and was released a day later. He said that while in their custody, agents took him to a cemetery and beat him, calling his green card fake and threatening to have him deported. His brother was arrested and remained in detention. The federal agents brought assault charges against him, which were dismissed by a judge before he was released. [44]
On June 5, ICE detained a 19-year-old college student from Utah after a traffic stop in Colorado this month. Caroline Dias Goncalves, a DACA recipient and student at the University of Utah, was driving on Interstate 70 outside Loma on June 5 when a Mesa County sheriff's deputy pulled her over. The stop lasted less than 20 minutes, and "Dias Goncalves was released from the traffic stop with a warning," according to the local Sheriff's office. Then, shortly after she exited the highway, ICE agents stopped her, arrested her and took her to an immigration detention center. According to her attorney, Goncalves has no criminal record and was not shown a warrant. [45]
On June 6, a series of ICE raids throughout Los Angeles led to the arrest of 44 people and provoked widespread protests from community members. In one raid, laborers were apprehended outside the Home Depot in the Westlake District. Agents in riot gear clashed with and chased people through the parking lot. At a clothing store in the fashion district, several garment workers were arrested while protesters urged them not to sign documents or speak with federal agents. David Huerta of SEIU California was arrested while at the scene of a raid. [46] He was serving as a community observer when federal agents arrested him over allegations of interfering. He was initially hospitalized and released later in the day for injuries sustained during the arrest. Videos circulating online show officers shoving Huerta to the ground during the arrest before handcuffing him. Huerta was eventually charged with conspiring to impede an officer and released from federal custody on June 9 on a $50,000 bond, following a hearing in Los Angeles. [47]
On June 7, ICE mistakenly detained a US Marshall outside a courthouse in Arizona. [48]
On June 12, an Oregon vineyard owner and one of his employees were arrested by ICE. [49] After more than a month in detention and community outcry over their detention, the vineyard owner's family shared that he would be deported to Mexico, his country of origin. ICE cited a 1997 DUI as justification for his arrest, but a search of court records did not return any evidence of a DUI conviction. [50]
On June 14, the independent journalist Mario Guevara, a legal US resident for 25 years, was arrested by Doraville Police while covering an anti-ICE protest in Northeast Atlanta. Guevara was released into ICE custody, and his whereabouts are unknown. His arrest was condemned by the Committee to Protect Journalists. [51]
On June 17, Adrian Martinez, a 20 year old man from Pico Rivera, California, says he was arrested by ICE agents during a raid and detained for three days in spite of his U.S. citizenship. Martinez recounts that he was clocking out of his shift at Walmart when he saw a janitor being aggressively chased by ICE agents in the parking lot. He says he drove towards the masked agents in an attempt to defend the elderly man and was subsequently restrained and detained by the ICE agents. [52]
On June 19, ICE and CBP agents bragged about arresting 31 "bodies", including some American citizens, at a Home Depot near Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, referring to it as "a good day." [53]
In Pacoima, a 54-year-old woman selling tamales outside a Lowe's in Pacoima had a heart attack while federal agents were attempting to arrest her. [54]
On June 20, clergy leaders in San Diego, including the newly appointed Catholic bishop Michael Pham, thwarted an attempted raid at the Edward J. Schwartz Federal Building downtown. On any other day, according to witnesses, two to four immigrants would be dragged away. [55]
Also on June 20, an 82 year old Chilean asylee living in Allentown, Pennsylvania was arrested at a routine immigration appointment in Philadelphia after losing the wallet containing his green card. The man's whereabouts were unknown for nearly a month and his family was told that he had died in ICE custody. On July 18 they learned that he was alive in Guatemala. [56]
On June 21, a 48 year old gardener was punched in the head, pepper sprayed and arrested by ICE while landscaping outside an IHOP in Santa Ana. His son, a US Marine, has called for his release. [57]
On June 26, Job Garcia, a 37 year old PhD student and a US citizen, was arrested during an ICE raid being conducted at a Home Depot in Hollywood. Garcia was capturing video of the ICE raid when he was confronted by agents. ICE agents reportedly tackled him and placed a knee on his back. After being arrested, Garcia was placed in a holding area at Dodger Stadium. He was held for roughly 24 hours and then released back to his family. [58] Garcia is now seeking 1 million dollars in damages for assault, battery, false arrest, and false imprisonment. [59]
On June 30, Estela Ramos Baten and her daughter, a Los Angeles honors student, were arrested by ICE at a routine immigration court check-in and deported to Guatemala shortly after. [60] The pair said they were not allowed to call their family to notify them that they had been detained, and that ICE had taken Estela's medications, which could not be replaced in Guatemala. Estela died on September 8 at age 45. [61]
On July 8, 30-year-old Denis Guillen-Solis and two other landscapers, who were working outside the Ontario Advanced Surgery Center in Ontario, California, were targeted by federal immigration officers in masks and bulletproof vests. According to representatives of the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice, the agents refused to identify themselves. In a confrontation captured on video, staff in scrubs can be heard and seen telling the agents to leave, that they were trespassing on private property without a warrant, and that they needed to take their hands off the 30-year-old Solis. Two agents, one on either side of a doorway at the clinic, both of whom had their faces covered, were attempting to detain Solis as he clung to the doorway frame, desperately trying to hold on, while weeping. [62]
On July 8, immigration agents arrested 20 people during a raid at the Alba Wine and Spirits warehouse in Edison, New Jersey. [63] Federal agents also arrested a mother of two outside of the Elm Street Courthouse in New Haven, Connecticut in connection with a court hearing for her felony risk of injury to a child case that her husband said resulted from leaving one child at home while taking the other to school nearby. [64] On 9 July, a Suffolk County Community College student and her mother were detained by ICE and sent to their Louisiana detention facility. [65]
On July 10, federal immigration agents carried out immigration sweeps at two Southern California cannabis farms, arresting more than 360 suspected undocumented immigrants and prompting a heated standoff between authorities and hundreds of protesters at a Ventura County site. [66] [67] Carpinteria city councilmembers Julia Mayer and Mónica Solórzano were present. Solórzano was injured after falling to the ground as a result of one of the many smoke grenades deployed by ICE. US Congressman Salud Carbajal was denied entry to the site by ICE while attempting to exercise oversight. [68] One farmworker, Jaime Alanis Garcia, became the first known person to die as a result of the Trump administration's immigration enforcement operations after Garcia fell 30 feet from a building during the raid. [69] [70] The death sparked condemnation from United Farm Workers President Teresa Romero who said, “Our hearts are heavy for the grieving family of Jaime Alanis. We'll do everything we can to support them." [69] George Retes, a US citizen and disabled veteran who worked as a security guard at Glass House Farms, was also arrested in the raid and released a few days later without charge. Retes was allegedly trying to leave the scene when ICE agents broke his car window, pepper sprayed him, threw him on the ground, and detained him. His family was uninformed of his whereabouts for several days. [71] [72] Some of the detainees' children were left without parents in the aftermath. [73]
On July 10, a 71 year old US citizen looking to document ICE arrests at a San Diego courthouse was herself arrested and held by federal agents for 8 hours. [74]
On July 17, ICE arrested a 38 year old Iranian-born chiropractor outside his child's preschool in Beaverton, Oregon, breaking the window of his car and taking him to the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma. A search of court records turned up no criminal record for the arrested man, who lawfully entered the United States in 2017 but overstayed his student visa. [75]
On July 22, immigration agents in Florida arrested the Haitian businessman, philanthropist and former presidential candidate Pierre Réginald Boulos. Boulos was born in the United States but renounced his citizenship to run for the Haitian presidency. He obtained US residency in 2024. The government alleged that Boulos had failed to disclose information on his visa application and that he was financially supporting Haitian gangs from abroad. [76]
On July 30, ICE arrested Tae Heung "Will" Kim, a Korean graduate student, green card holder and 35 year resident of the United States. In a statement on his arrest, CBP referenced his 2011 arrest for possession of a small amount of marijuana, for which he served a community service sentence. The detainee's lawyer said he was told by a CBP official that his client had no right to speak to a lawyer and that the constitution did not apply to him. The lawyer also told ABC News that his client was held without access to sunlight in a room with constant lighting and only a chair to sleep in for more than 72 hours in violation of CBP guidelines. According to a congressional staff member, he was then transferred to an ICE detention facility in southern Texas. [77]
On August 5, Giovanna Martinez, an immigration advocate and social worker from Birmingham, Alabama, was arrested by ICE during a traffic stop in Leeds. She was handed over to ICE and moved to Pickens County Jail. ICE allegedly plans to move her to Louisiana. [78]
On August 8, US citizen Amanda Trebach was arrested while monitoring ICE activities at Terminal Island in Los Angeles with Unión del Barrio. She was detained overnight before being released without charges the next morning following community outcry over her detention. [79]
On August 14, a man fleeing from an ICE Raid at a Home Depot in Monrovia, California was struck and killed by a vehicle on the 210 Freeway. [80]
On August 20, CBP officers opened fire on a family during a raid on their vehicle in San Bernardino. The driver, an undocumented father from Mexico, sped away from the scene after agents broke his window. His 18 year old son and 23 year old son-in-law, both US citizens, were also in the car. [81]
On August 25, the Sahrawi activist Jamal Fadel was arrested by ICE at 26 Federal Plaza in New York. Fadel sought political asylum in the United States after leaving Western Sahara due to threats from Moroccan authorities. He is held at Moshannon Valley Processing Center in Pennsylvania. [82]
On September 4, ICE raided a Hyundai Motor Group's plant in Ellabell, Georgia resulting in the detention of 475 people, mostly South Korean nationals. Officials raised claims that many of those detained had either illegally crossed the US border, entered the country legally but were on expired visas, or had entered on a visa waiver that prohibited them from working. It was later announced that more than 300 South Koreans would be released and flown back to South Korea on a private charter plane, with Foreign Minister Cho Hyun leading talks about the incident, the workers' release and diplomatic relations. [83] [84] At the time that it occurred, this was the largest single raid in ICE history. [85]
On September 9, ICE agents in Rochester, New York attempted to arrest three roofers during a daytime raid. The agents arrested one man but had to leave the others on the roof after hundreds of residents including clergy and politicians came out to protest the arrests. [86]
On 12 September, ICE agents in Franklin Park, Illinois shot and killed Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez. Villegas-Gonzalez was dropping his child off at school when approached by the agents, and attempted to flee in his vehicle. [87] DHS said he had struck an officer who feared for his life when firing the shots that killed him. [88] Villegas-Gonzalez's lawyer rejected DHS's characterization of his conduct, saying that he was not a violent man and was probably scared when approached by the agents. Delia Ramirez called for an investigation into the killing. [87]