ALBANY (TNS) — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested at least 7,488 people in New York this year through mid-October, according to new data from the agency. The agency is on track to arrest twice as many people in New York this year compared to last year.

ICE arrests dropped slightly in New York in August and September after peaking over the summer, according to the data, which is being made public as the result of a lawsuit filed against the federal government by the Deportation Data Project.

“No matter periodic ups and downs, the data is clear: ICE is arresting immigrants at historically unprecedented rates across New York,” said Zach Ahmad, senior policy counsel at the New York Civil Liberties Union.

The Deportation Data Project statistics on ICE arrests include actions by ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations, but not for ICE Homeland Security Investigations, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, or U.S. Border Patrol. As many as 150 arrests listed in New York in 2025 may be duplicates. But the data provides the most available information about immigration actions in the state.

About 3,000 people arrested by ICE in New York this year had active, ongoing immigration cases as of mid-October. The data suggests about 3,300 immigrants arrested in New York this year have been removed from the country. Roughly 1,000 had voluntarily departed the U.S.

A small number of New Yorkers have died in ICE custody. Santos Reyes-Banegas, a 42-year-old from Honduras, died in September at Nassau County Correctional Center, where he was held for less than one day. His death was preliminarily determined to be caused by liver failure due to alcoholism, ICE said, an assessment his family has challenged.

A Queens man, Chaofeng Ge, a 32-year-old originally from China, was found dead in August, hanging in a shower in a Pennsylvania detention center with linens tied around his wrists and ankles in what was described as a hog-tied position, according to the family’s attorney. Ge had been arrested by ICE after being released from jail for his conviction on charges of accessing a device issued to another who did not authorize its use and conspiracy. His death is being treated as a suicide.

Nationally, ICE booked more arrested immigrants into detention in October than any other month of the year, statistics published directly by ICE shows.

ENFORCEMENT SURGES

The recent bump in arrests appears to be driven by enforcement surges in other states, including Texas, California, Florida, Illinois and Georgia, according to ICE data from the Deportation Data Project. Some of this activity correlates with large-scale enforcement missions targeting specific cities, like an ICE blitz in Chicago that started in September and netted hundreds of arrests.

In fact, of the states with the most ICE arrests, New York was the only one that appears to have had a decline in arrests in August and September.

Mario Bruzzone, a vice president with the New York Immigration Coalition, said much activity in New York has been “high-profile” raids aimed at garnering media and public attention, rather than enforcement purely focused on increasing arrests.

“It is more difficult here (to make arrests), as it is in all blue states, but also they haven’t committed the same federal resources and that explosion of federal resources that you’ve seen in Illinois and Los Angeles,” he said. At the same time, some New York enforcement actions that have netted more arrests but not drawn publicity.

In mid-October, dozens of federal agents descended on Canal Street in New York City, an area where street vendors hawk counterfeit wares, detaining nine men in the country illegally, the Department of Homeland Security said. The action quickly drew protestors and cameras to the scene. Protestors disrupted another purported raid on Canal Street on Saturday.

In mid-September, ICE agents out of Buffalo arrested 35 immigration offenders in a weeklong operation, the agency said. ICE said four of the individuals had criminal histories that included weapons offenses, robbery and driving while intoxicated.

“Despite a historic increase in assaults against ICE law enforcement by violent lunatics, our brave officers remain dedicated to fulfilling their congressionally mandated mission to enhance public safety by removing criminal illegal aliens from our communities in western, central and upstate New York,” ICE Buffalo Enforcement and Removal Operations acting Field Office Director Joseph Freden said in September. “Under President Trump’s leadership, we are once again a nation of laws.”

Earlier in September, 60 federal agents raided a protein bar plant in the town of Cato in Cayuga County and arrested 57 immigrants, court records show. Five were charged with reentering the country after a prior removal, which is a felony. The raid was the largest ICE enforcement action in upstate New York since President Donald J. Trump launched his mass deportation campaign at the start of his second term.

ONLY A FEW FROM DETAINERS

Only a small portion of ICE arrests in New York have come from detainers, which are requests the agency makes to law enforcement to hold an individual for them to pick up. Earlier this week, ICE Director Todd Lyons sent a letter to New York Attorney General Letitia James calling on her to honor ICE arrest detainers for more than 7,000 people in the state’s custody. He asserted that New York’s failure to honor ICE detainers resulted in the release of 6,947 “criminal illegal aliens” since Jan. 20.

While the Trump administration emphasizes its enforcement actions are removing the “worst of the worst” from the nation, data continues to show many of the immigrants arrested by the agency had no prior criminal history, other than entering the U.S. illegally, which is a federal offense.

In August, September and October, 555 of those arrested by ICE in New York had a criminal conviction, while 362 had pending criminal charges, ICE data from the Deportation Data Project shows. Over 1,500 had no criminal charges other than an immigration violation.

Nationally, recent statistics published by the agency show just over half of immigrants in ICE detention as of November had pending criminal charges or a conviction.

“Trump, (White House Border Czar Tom) Homan, and their ICE cronies claim they’re targeting dangerous criminals, but in reality, they’re going after immigrant children, families, and beloved community members en masse,” said Ahmad of the NYCLU.

The new figures published by the Deportation Data Project give fresh insights into where ICE has been arresting people in New York in recent months. While hundreds of the arrests have non-specific labels that do not reveal the particular arrest location, there were more than 500 arrests in August, September and October at Federal Plaza in New York City, where there is an immigration court and an ICE office. Federal Plaza was also the top spot for ICE arrests in New York throughout 2025. Some arrests at other New York City immigration courts may be lumped into the Federal Plaza numbers, Bruzzone cautioned.

NEARLY 200 ARRESTS IN ERIE COUNTY

In recent months, the data also shows nearly 200 more ICE arrests in Erie County, where there is an ICE field office, detention facility and Border Patrol sites. In addition, ICE made at least 91 arrests in Onondaga County, at least 85 arrests in Saratoga County and at least 50 arrests in Albany and Monroe counties in recent months. Saratoga County has an ICE office in Malta where immigrants check-in with federal authorities, making it a spot where immigration officials apprehend individuals.

Most of the people arrested from August through October were from Ecuador, followed by Mexico and Guatemala. The overwhelming majority are men. The average age was 36.

At least 78 children were arrested by ICE in New York in that three-month period, the data shows. Arrests of minors picked up in June in New York, and more kids were arrested by the agency in September than any other month. Many of the children were arrested at Federal Plaza immigration court.

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