Minnesota ICE arrests have doubled under Trump

Arrests of unauthorized immigrants living in Minnesota have doubled, and the time it takes to deport someone has been cut in half since President Donald Trump took office.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents made 878 arrests in the state between Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20 and June 26, according to federal reports gathered by the Deportation Data Project.

During that same period in 2024, ICE made 441 arrests in Minnesota.

The Deportation Data Project, run by a group of professors and lawyers at the University of California Berkeley, files public information requests with ICE to collect and publish immigration data. It provides an in-depth look at how Trump’s promise of mass deportations is playing out across Minnesota and the nation.

Deportations are happening faster and more often, while many of the immigrants caught up in the sweeps are not the “worst of the worst” that the president promised to focus on. The crackdown has divided the nation, stoked fear in immigrant communities and drawn protests from critics while bringing applause from supporters.

Nationally, 111,590 immigration arrests were made in the first five months of the Trump administration, compared with 109,698 in all of 2024.

Last year, it took 56 days on average for someone to be deported after they were arrested. Under Trump, removals are happening twice as fast — 28 days on average, federal data shows.

ICE has deported more than 128,000 people since the president took office. About 1,800 of those removals were handled by the agency’s St. Paul office, which covers Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota.

More than half of the arrested immigrants had a criminal history: 38% had at least one conviction, and 22% faced a pending charge. That’s a slight increase over the same period in 2024.

However, data from all of last year show that a higher percentage of those arrested had criminal histories or pending charges than in the first five months of the current administration.

More than 40% of those arrested under Trump had no criminal history, and several studies have found undocumented immigrants commit crimes at a lower rate than U.S. citizens.

Under Trump, the number of detainer requests — ICE requests made to local law enforcement to hold someone for pickup — has grown 34% in Minnesota compared with the same period last year — to 1,183 from 884.

ICE detainer requests are controversial because several Minnesota sheriffs have been successfully sued for holding prisoners beyond their legal authority. Immigration offenses are handled in civil courts, and state and federal laws do not allow people to be detained after their criminal case is concluded.

ICE detainers often do not include a criminal warrant. The Trump administration has accused cities and counties that do not comply with detainer requests of having sanctuary policies.

More than half of the immigrants arrested in Minnesota are from Mexico or Ecuador. Most of the rest come from Central or South America. That’s similar to the countries of origin of detainees arrested in 2024.