Trump’s mass deportations are impossible without racial profiling

Border Patrol Chief Tom Homan they continue to threaten “Flooding” in New York City by ICE agents. But a new study shows that ICE has been quietly increasing the number of people in New York City already — with a disproportionate focus on Latino communities. Citya non-profit local media organization, found 430 people who were arrested on the streets in the city between October 2025 and mid-March. Of these, 93 percent involved Latinos, although they only make up 66 percent of the undocumented population. To recap: Most of those arrested were not wanted. The officers caught them while they were looking for other people, according to court documents, and locked them up because they looked like the person they were looking for. ICE is ramping up enforcement in cities that have never heard of high-profile criminals — and they appear to have carte blanche to arrest people based on the color of their skin.

After A big return to ICE’s Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota, where a federal judge recently ruled that agents build without permission mainly because of race, Homan said ICE is now using “smart enforcement” in the Twin Cities and elsewhere. ICE says it has changed to “arrested” – but CityReports suggest that agents will eagerly arrest anyone they come across as they search for what they want. While ICE has many investigative tools it can use to track individuals, these tools appear to be less effective than racial profiling. And even if some judges challenge ICE’s discriminatory practice in the future, there may be few. The Supreme Court recently ruled that racial discrimination is permissible in immigration enforcement.

Court records obtained by City recruiting more than 1,200 people arrested in the New York City area between October 2025 and mid-March shows discrimination. From time to time, agents arrest someone they say looks like their target, even if they don’t match their skin tone or accent. One man says agents called him “maldito Mexicano,” or “brutal Mexican,” as they arrested him. In several cases, ICE agents have arrested people they say appear to be targets and detained them even after it turned out they had found the wrong person. One afternoon in February, ICE agents circled the same area in Staten Island several times looking for a 25-year-old Mexican man named Julio. They first arrested a 36-year-old Guatemalan man named Yesayas, who at the time was a 21-year-old man named Juan, and both of them described him as “the man they believed they were looking for.” The police arrested a third person, a 47-year-old man named Alejandro, because he left the house. All three were captured; the first two left the country after being imprisoned.

Globally, ICE arrested more than 400,000 people in the first 14 months of Donald Trump’s second term, according to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. A growing number of these threats involve Latinos with no prior criminal convictions or deportations, suggesting agents are illegally profiling people on the street, Cato Institute analysis found. Several people arrested by ICE have filed lawsuits claiming they were targeted not because of their legal status but because of their race — but the Supreme Court. better allows for racial profiling in a 6-3 decision last September, which ruled that ICE agents can stop people based on their “race or ethnicity,” language, or accent.

ICE isn’t the only law enforcement agency roaming the streets looking for immigrants. As Trump ordered many agencies – including and the FBI and Homeland Security Investigationsthe division within ICE that often investigates child abuse and drug trafficking – to facilitate immigration arrests, so local police departments and sheriff’s offices have worked on behalf of ICE. Under Trump, there have been a 287(g) contract extension.a Clinton-era program that advocates for police to pursue illegal immigration. On his first day back, Trump issued an executive order requiring the DHS secretary to extend these agreements. As of February, there were 1,412 287(g) relationships across the country, according to NPRalmost all of which were signed in 2025.

There are three types of 287(g) arrangements: Detention and warrant service officers involve transferring people from local jails to ICE detention facilities, while a third, task force, allows officers to detain people on suspicion of immigration violations. The Obama Administration he suspended the task force in 2012 amid mounting allegations of racism and human rights abuses in some areas – at worst Maricopa County, Arizonawhile Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who adopted the 287(g) program in the first place, established a brutal, naked regime. But Trump also brought up the model of the labor movement, which creates many new contracts. DHS spokesperson he told NPR that police officers and sheriff’s deputies who sign up for the job receive 40 hours of training on topics including immigration and human rights law, and ICE’s Use of Force policy. Under previous administrations, 287(g) courses took about a month.

Texas and Florida lead the pack. Both states have enacted laws requiring local law enforcement to cooperate with DHS, and in Florida, even the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has. now scanning Flock cameras to support ICE. The Trump administration wants to expand 287(g) everywhere, not just in states with large Latino populations. There have been 287 (g) breach of contract. Across the Midwest, DHS has also begun offering financial incentives to officers who participate in 287(g) programs, including monthly bonuses of up to $1,000. In other words, DHS is providing financial incentives for racial profiling. One critic, Nayna Gupta of the American Immigration Council, he told KCUR that the bonus is “beneficial” for immigrants.

Although arrests do not result in deportation, they drive people from their communities to remote detention centers, cutting them off from legal aid. In order to get out of ICE custody, a person must file a habeas corpus petition. Fortunately, a habeas petition must be filed in the state where the person is detained, meaning someone arrested in New York – where federal courts are more immigration-friendly – and transferred to Louisiana has a short window to be released. Nothing about this process is clear or predictable. In reviewing 1,200 habeas petitions filed between October 2025 and March of this year, City found a troubling rise in the number of people arrested on the streets, many of whom followed a similar nationalist path.

Reports indicate that ICE is changing its tactics without reducing enforcement. DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin, who took over the department after Kristi Noem was fired, said they want ICE out of the news and has indicated that the agency will take a more direct, less aggressive approach to enforcement. But ICE hasn’t stopped walking the streets — agents have just quietly begun their work. In New York, a traffic jam can be an attempt to fly under the radar. Earlier in Trump’s second term, ICE agents were Arrest people in state courtsduring or after their immigration proceedings. The arrest was met with an outcry from law enforcement officials and activists and was widely covered by the media.

On the crowded streets of New York City, streetcar construction is unlikely to attract attention – at least not now. In February, when officers were spotted in the predominantly Latino neighborhood of Bushwick, Brooklyn, volunteers surrounded them and began blowing whistles as agents made an arrest. They knocked on the windows of the agent’s car and managed to get the man’s information before taking him away. According to CityAccording to reports, the volunteers connected the man with an attorney who helped him get out of ICE custody. But the fear continues. Random arrests mean that anyone can be a target. But not everyone: ICE arrests people based on the color of their skin. Racial profiling is the only way DHS can fulfill Trump’s promise to deport more people.