Overview
- The cooperation was formalized by a memorandum signed May 29, 2025, and passenger‑record matches began being exchanged in June 2025, allowing ICE to locate and stop passengers at airports without prior home visits.
- ICE interior operations have surged, producing record detention totals that reached nearly 51,000 people in August 2026 and large multi‑agency sweeps such as a Florida operation that detained about 500 people in late August.
- Independent research from the Deportation Data Project shows 571,412 administrative arrests since January 20, 2025, and a falling share of arrestees with prior criminal convictions to roughly 27% in July 2026.
- Enforcement tactics now extend beyond airports to workplace raids and trucking checkpoints, and federal rule changes affecting commercial driver’s licenses have targeted roughly 200,000 noncitizen drivers with practical effects on livelihoods and supply‑chain staffing.
- Civil‑rights groups and local officials have intensified legal challenges and oversight demands, citing wrongful detentions and use‑of‑force incidents in multiple cities and urging limits on non‑mandatory airport and local cooperation with ICE.