New Report: Immigration Enforcement in Los Angeles in 2025-2026
Executive summary
Los Angeles was the first city the second Trump Administration targeted for a multi-agency citywide enforcement campaign, beginning in early June 2025. The model was repeated in Washington, D.C., Chicago, Minneapolis, and other cities. Over the following year, about three quarters of the noncitizens arrested in the greater Los Angeles area during the surge were deported by August 2026. During that time, enforcement in Los Angeles continued at high levels, with arrests in essentially every part of the city.
This report documents the surge in interior immigration enforcement in Los Angeles in 2025 and 2026, with four key takeaways:
First, at-large arrests, which took place in neighborhoods, courthouses and at ICE check-ins, were at the center of the story of the surge in Los Angeles. The scale of such arrests was new nationwide in interior immigration enforcement; ICE historically relied on transfers from jails and prisons. The surge in Los Angeles was also accompanied by an approximately 75% increase in transfers from jails and prisons; state and local sanctuary laws likely prevented more transfers from state and local facilities.
Second, the largest number of at-large arrests in the area took place in the City of Los Angeles, according to ICE’s data (33%). Yet there were also arrests in essentially every other city and town in the Los Angeles ICE area of responsibility, which covers Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and Ventura counties.
Third, ICE arrests became less targeted, reflecting the shift to at-large arrests and the effective end of federal enforcement priorities. The number of people arrested who had no final order of removal from an immigration court increased by nearly 1400% at the peak of the surge in June 2025, and the number of arrests of noncitizens with no criminal conviction increased by over 3400%. In previous administrations, these people were not enforcement targets.
Fourth, many people arrested since the start of 2025 were quickly deported, within 60 days (62%). Overall, nearly 15,000 people were deported from Los Angeles in that period. But long detentions also increased compared to 2024. For much of 2025, release within 60 days into the US was very rare, and has only recently in 2026 begun to increase, perhaps due to writs of habeas corpus.