Trump’s mass deportations are impossible without racial profiling

Border Security Czar Tom Homan He keeps threatening “Flooding” New York City with ICE agents. But a new investigation shows that ICE has been quietly ramping up arrests in the New York area already — and disproportionately targeting Latino neighborhoods. Citya local nonprofit news organization, found 430 street arrests in the D.C. area between October 2025 and mid-March. Of these, 93% were Latino, despite making up only 66% of the undocumented local population. Even more telling is that many of the detainees were not the intended targets at all. Agents caught them while looking for other people, according to court records, and detained them because they supposedly resembled the person they were pursuing. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is ramping up enforcement in cities where there have been no reports of high-profile raids — and agents appear to have carte blanche to arrest people based on the color of their skin.

after Widespread backlash to ICE’s Operation Metro Surge In Minnesota, where a federal judge Recently ruled That agents made warrantless arrests largely on the basis of race, Homan said Immigration and Customs Enforcement is now using a “smarter app” in the Twin Cities and elsewhere. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has reportedly shifted to “targeted” arrests — but CityReports show that agents will eagerly arrest anyone they encounter while searching for their targets. Although ICE has plenty of surveillance tools at its disposal that it can use to track people, this equipment appears to be far less effective than racial profiling. Even if other judges rule against ICE’s racist practices in the future, there may not be much room for appeal. The Supreme Court recently ruled that racial profiling is permissible when it comes to immigration enforcement.

Court records he obtained City Documentation of more than 1,200 arrests in the New York City area between October 2025 and mid-March shows a disturbing pattern of discrimination. Time and time again, agents arrest someone they claim looks like their actual target, even when there is little resemblance other than skin color or accent. One man claims agents called him a “maldito Mexicano” or “fucking Mexican” during his arrest. In several cases, ICE agents arrested people they claimed looked like their targets and detained them even after it turned out they had arrested the wrong person. One afternoon in February, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents circled the same building on Staten Island several times looking for a 25-year-old Mexican man named Julio. First, they arrested a 36-year-old Guatemalan man named Isaias, then a 21-year-old Guatemalan man named Juan, both of whom they described as “a male believed to be the intended target.” The agents then arrested a third person, a 47-year-old man named Alejandro, because he left the building that the agents were monitoring. All three were taken into custody. The first two left the country after their arrest.

Nationally, ICE made more than 400,000 arrests in the first 14 months of Donald Trump’s second term. According to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. An increasing number of these arrests involve Latinos who do not have a criminal past or outstanding deportation orders, indicating that agents are illegally profiling people on the street, Cato Institute analysis Found. Several people in ICE custody have filed lawsuits claiming they were targeted not because of their legal status but because of their race — but the Supreme Court Effectively allowed racial profiling In a 6-3 decision last September, he ruled that ICE agents could stop people based on their “obvious race or ethnic origin,” language, or dialect.

ICE is not the only form of law enforcement roaming the streets looking for immigrants. Just as Trump ordered several agencies – incl Federal Bureau of Investigation and Homeland Security InvestigationsICE, a division within ICE that typically investigates child exploitation and drug trafficking, prioritized immigrant arrests, and local police departments and sheriff’s offices also acted on behalf of ICE. Under Trump, there was Increase in 287(g) agreements.a Clinton-era program that deputizes police enforcement of immigration laws. On his first day back in office, Trump issued an executive order requiring the Secretary of Homeland Security to maximize these agreements. As of February, there were 1,412 active Section 287(g) partnerships across the country, According to NPRalmost all of which were signed in 2025.

There are three types of 287(g) arrangements: The Corrections Enforcement Officer and Detention Service model involves transferring people from local jails to ICE custody, while the third model, the Task Force model, allows officers to stop people on suspicion of immigration violations. Obama administration The task force model was suspended in 2012 Amid rampant allegations of racial profiling and civil rights violations in some communities — most famously Maricopa County, Arizonawhere then-Sheriff Joe Arpaio, an early adopter of the 287(g) program, implemented an aggressive and clearly racist enforcement system. But Trump brought back this workforce model, which makes up the majority of the new agreements. A spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security He told NPR Police officers and sheriff’s deputies who participate in the task force model receive 40 hours of training on topics including immigration and civil rights law, along with ICE’s use-of-force policy. Under previous administrations, Section 287(g) training took about a month.

Texas and Florida lead the pack. Both states have passed legislation requiring local law enforcement to cooperate with the Department of Homeland Security, and in Florida, even Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers are involved. Now scan the Flock cameras for ICE assistance. The Trump administration is seeking to expand Section 287(g) everywhere, not just in states with large Latino populations. He was there Explosion in 287(g) agreements. Across the Midwest, DHS has begun offering financial incentives to officers who participate in 287(g) programs, including monthly bonuses of up to $1,000. In other words, DHS provides financial incentives for racial profiling. One critic, Naina Gupta of the American Immigration Council, He told KCUR The bonus is “essentially a reward” for migrants.

Even when arrests do not result in immediate deportation, they move migrants out of their communities and into remote detention centers, isolating them from legal support. To get out of ICE detention, a person needs to file a habeas corpus petition. It is crucial that the habeas corpus petition be filed in the jurisdiction where the person is being detained, which means that a person arrested in New York — where federal courts are typically more immigrant-friendly — and transported in Louisiana has a short window of time to seek release. Nothing about this process is clear or obvious. In its review of 1,200 habeas corpus petitions filed between October 2025 and March of this year, City I found a disturbing rise in street arrests, many of which followed a similar pattern of racial profiling.

Reports indicate that ICE is changing its tactics without actually reducing enforcement. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullen, who took over the ministry after Kristi Noem’s ouster, said He wants to keep ICE out of the news He noted that the agency will take a more targeted and less pretentious approach to implementation. But ICE hasn’t stopped roaming the streets, agents are just starting to do their work more quietly. In New York, the shift to street law enforcement may actually be an attempt to fly under the radar. Earlier in Trump’s second term, ICE agents Arresting people in federal courtsduring or after immigration hearings. These arrests were met with intense outrage from legal observers and human rights advocates, and were easily documented by journalists.

On the crowded streets of New York City, street arrests are unlikely to attract attention — at least for now. In February, after agents were spotted in Brooklyn’s predominantly Latino neighborhood of Bushwick, volunteers surrounded them and began blowing their whistles when agents arrested someone. They pounded on the windows of the agents’ cars, and even managed to get the man’s contact information before he was taken away. according to CityAccording to our reporting, volunteers connected the man with an attorney who helped him get out of ICE detention. But the fear still remains. The randomness of arrests means that anyone could be a target. But it won’t be just anyone: Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrests people based on the color of their skin. Racial profiling is the only way DHS can fulfill Trump’s promise of mass deportation.