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The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office in Miami leads immigration arrests in the United States since the start of Donald Trump's second term, averaging 120 arrests per day, according to an analysis by The New York Times quoted by the organization Americans For Immigrant Justice.
The ICE office in Miami —which covers Florida, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands— has recorded 41,310 detentions since January 2025, of which 9,880 occurred so far in 2026, more than any other office in the country.
Arrests in Miami exceed those of the second place, Dallas, by 36%, with a total of 30,350 arrests, followed by New Orleans (29,210), Houston (27,090), Atlanta (26,830), Chicago (23,230), and San Antonio (22,240).
"Florida is currently reporting the second highest level of immigration arrests in the country, largely driven by the close collaboration between local authorities and federal immigration agencies," noted Americans For Immigrant Justice.
The leadership in Miami is the result of a combination of political and demographic factors.
Florida stands out as the only state where all county sheriffs maintain active agreements with ICE under the 287(g) program. Governor Ron DeSantis promoted the expansion of the 287(g) agreements in February 2025, a federal program that allows local agencies to collaborate with ICE on immigration functions.
Additionally, Miami-Dade County has the highest proportion of foreign-born population in the country, at 54.5%, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Nationally, a report from the Deportation Data Project at the University of California, Berkeley, found that ICE arrests quadrupled under Trump compared to the Biden era, exceeding 6,000 per week and averaging 57,000 individuals in detention daily by January 2026.
Americans For Immigrant Justice warned that "there has been a 2,450% increase in the number of individuals without criminal records who are detained by ICE since January 2025," a figure that coincides with the increase in arrests of immigrants with no prior records documented in previous analyses.
The escalation of operations has also resulted in a humanitarian crisis in detention centers, where the death rate under custody reached its highest level in 22 years, according to a study published in the medical journal JAMA on April 16th.
Weekly ICE arrests fell by nearly 12% nationwide following the deaths of two American citizens during federal operations in Minneapolis, dropping from an average of 8,347 to 7,369 per week, although the levels remain historically high.
In this context, the interim director of ICE, Todd Lyons, announced his resignation on April 17, effective at the end of May, amid controversies regarding deaths in custody and fatal shootings of American citizens in Minneapolis.
In December 2025, ICE arrests reached a peak of nearly 40,000 per week, far exceeding the records from the Biden era, and the daily population of detainees hit a historic high of over 73,400 individuals.
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