Latino immigrants have been disproportionately targeted by ICE more than any other ethnic group in New York state during the Trump administraton’s crackdown, according to a new study.
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency has zeroed in on Latino migrants at a rate that far exceeds the pursuit of immigrants who come to America from other countries, according to the New York Immigration Coalition, an advocacy group that studied the federal agency’s enforcement practices across New York and the nation.
Immigrants from Central and South America are 25% of New York immigrant population but account for 74% of ICE arrests in the state, the study found.
“This report lays bare the reality that ICE enforcement in New York is not just heavy-handed—it is discriminatory,” said Mario Bruzzone, vice president of policy at the advocacy grup.
“Latino communities are being targeted in their neighborhoods and homes, often regardless of criminal history. City leaders and policymakers must not wait for this trend to worsen. They must act now to protect families and ensure that New York remains a place where immigrant communities are safe, not hunted.”
The same trend exists across the country, analysts said. Growth in arrests was actually slower in New York City than in some cities like Los Angeles, where enforcement can escalate quickly, according to the data.
And, although much of the focus in New York City has been on courthouse arrests, community arrests — particularly of Latino men without criminal records — were the primary driver of increased ICE enforcement, the study found.
The coalition’s report analyzed ICE data on 252,571 agency arrests from Jan 20, when President Trump took office for his second term, through July 29 to learn more about the scale of the new administration’s stepped up enforcement.
And the results in New York, advocates said, are profound.
This disparity spans nearly every Latino population in the U.S., including Mexicans,, Colombians, Cubans, Peruvians, Nicaraguans, Hondurans, Guatemalans, and Venezuelans, the report said.
In New York State, the study found:
●Ecuadorans are 4.0% of non-citizens but account for 24.9% of ICE’s arrests.
● Mexicans are 5.6% of non-citizens but account for 9.9% of ICE’s arrests.
● Guatemalans are 1.6% of non-citizens but accounts for 8.4% of ICE’s arrests.
● Hondurans are 1.3% of non-citizens but account for 6.0% of ICE’s arrests.
● Colombians are 2.8% of non-citizens but account for 5.1% of ICE’s arrests.
An immigrant from Nicaragua is 115 times more likely to be arrested by ICE than one from India and a non-citizen from South America is 28 times more likely to be arrested than one from Europe, the study found.
“These numbers reveal that ICE policies have not been applied equitably, and they have serious consequences for real families and neighborhoods,” Chloe East, an associate professor of economics at the University of Colorado Boulder, and one of the researchers, said in a statement.
An ICE representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Trump administration crackdown hasn’t focused primarily on hardened criminals, analysts said.
ICE’s arrests of immigrants with clean records have grown three times faster than arrests of those with convictions, the report said, noting that 30% of those arrested had no criminal convictions at all.
“With immigrants comprising 44% of the workforce in New York, mass deportations have hurt and will continue to hurt New York,” the report said. “Deportations at this scale mean more than lost jobs — they threaten the diversity and dynamism that define New York City.”
