A new analysis by the UCLA Center for Neighborhood Knowledge and Unseen finds that immigration enforcement under the Trump administration has shifted dramatically toward detaining Latino immigrants with no criminal convictions.
Using ICE detention data from February 2024 through September 2025, the report shows that noncriminal Latinos have become a central target of enforcement, despite claims that policy prioritizes serious offenders. Monthly detentions of Latinos without criminal records increased sixfold compared to the final year of the Biden administration, driven largely by aggressive workplace and public-space arrests.
Detention periods also grew significantly longer and more disruptive, with more frequent transfers between facilities. Most notably, deportation has overwhelmingly replaced release: nearly nine in ten noncriminal Latino detainees were deported, while only a small fraction were released back into their communities. The report warns these trends signal a shift toward mass confinement with far-reaching consequences.
Read the full report here, and view all briefs in this series here.
