Texas recorded more than 153,000 arrests by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement between October 2022 and March 2026, far more than any other state in a new analysis of federal data. Florida had the second-highest total, while a comparison adjusted for population placed several smaller states near the top.
The figures, shared with this reporter by CollabX Digital, draw on ICE arrest records obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request by the Deportation Data Project. Texas had 153,478 arrests during the period, and Florida had 53,945. The records cover October 1, 2022, through March 10, 2026, spanning the final years of the Biden administration and the beginning of President Donald Trump's second term.
Texas also led the analysis's population-adjusted ranking, with an average of 140.75 ICE arrests annually per 100,000 residents. New Jersey was second at 74.01, followed by Louisiana at 73.86, Oklahoma at 72.71 and Wyoming at 69.72. Florida ranked sixth at 66.59.
Those rankings tell different stories. Wyoming had 1,432 arrests, a fraction of Florida's total, but its smaller population put it above Florida by rate. New Jersey's 24,487 arrests placed it second by rate in the supplied table, despite a total less than half Florida's. The rate is an annual average; the arrest totals count the entire period.
The nationwide picture also changed markedly within those three and a half years. In a separate study comparing January 2026 with the final six months of 2024, the Deportation Data Project found that ICE arrests resulting in detention rose 4.4 times. Transfers from jails and prisons roughly doubled, while arrests outside those facilities increased elevenfold. The latter category includes arrests in neighborhoods, at immigration courts and during scheduled check-ins at ICE offices.
The project also found an increase of more than eightfold in arrests of people without criminal convictions over that comparison period. A lack of criminal conviction does not, by itself, establish a person's immigration status or the outcome of their case.
State and local cooperation is one factor behind the geographic differences. In an earlier analysis of 2025 ICE records, the Prison Policy Initiative found that 67% of ICE arrests in Florida came out of local jails or other lockups. It identified Texas, Florida and Tennessee among states with high arrest activity linked to local cooperation, while Illinois, New York and Oregon recorded lower rates during the periods it examined. Those shorter-period findings cannot be directly compared with the new multiyear ranking.
The figures also require care in interpreting location. The Deportation Data Project says the state recorded for an arrest is sometimes missing, although other fields can help identify where it happened. Its data cover arrests by ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations, not every immigration arrest by the federal government. An ICE arrest is also distinct from a deportation.
Together, the state ranking and the more recent trend data show both where ICE arrests were concentrated over the multiyear period and how rapidly the agency's enforcement activity expanded after 2024.
Texas recorded more than 153,000 arrests by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement between October 2022 and March 2026, far more than any other state in a new analysis of federal data. Florida had the second-highest total, while a comparison adjusted for population placed several smaller states near the top.
The figures, shared with this reporter by CollabX Digital, draw on ICE arrest records obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request by the Deportation Data Project. Texas had 153,478 arrests during the period and Florida had 53,945. The records cover October 1, 2022, through March 10, 2026, spanning the final years of the Biden administration and the beginning of President Donald Trump's second term.
Texas also led the analysis's population-adjusted ranking, with an average of 140.75 ICE arrests annually per 100,000 residents. New Jersey was second at 74.01, followed by Louisiana at 73.86, Oklahoma at 72.71 and Wyoming at 69.72. Florida ranked sixth at 66.59.
Those rankings tell different stories. Wyoming had 1,432 arrests, a fraction of Florida's total, but its smaller population put it above Florida by rate. New Jersey's 24,487 arrests placed it second by rate in the supplied table, despite a total less than half Florida's. The rate is an annual average; the arrest totals count the entire period.
The nationwide picture also changed markedly within those three and a half years. In a separate study comparing January 2026 with the final six months of 2024, the Deportation Data Project found that ICE arrests resulting in detention rose 4.4 times. Transfers from jails and prisons roughly doubled, while arrests outside those facilities increased elevenfold. The latter category includes arrests in neighborhoods, at immigration courts and during scheduled check-ins at ICE offices.
The project also found an increase of more than eightfold in arrests of people without criminal convictions over that comparison period. A lack of criminal conviction does not, by itself, establish a person's immigration status or the outcome of their case.
State and local cooperation is one factor behind the geographic differences. In an earlier analysis of 2025 ICE records, the Prison Policy Initiative found that 67% of ICE arrests in Florida came out of local jails or other lockups. It identified Texas, Florida and Tennessee among states with high arrest activity linked to local cooperation, while Illinois, New York and Oregon recorded lower rates during the periods it examined. Those shorter-period findings cannot be directly compared with the new multiyear ranking.
The figures also require care in interpreting location. The Deportation Data Project says the state recorded for an arrest is sometimes missing, although other fields can help identify where it happened. Its data cover arrests by ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations, not every immigration arrest by the federal government. An ICE arrest is also distinct from a deportation.
Together, the state ranking and the more recent trend data show both where ICE arrests were concentrated over the multiyear period and how rapidly the agency's enforcement activity expanded after 2024.
