'Shadow surge' pushes immigration arrests to highs as Trump administration shifts tactics

Geoff Bennett:

Less than a year ago, aggressive immigration raids in Democratic-led cities were drawing national headlines and sparking protests across the country. But in recent months, the Trump administration has shifted its approach.

Instead of relying as heavily on high-profile enforcement operations, federal immigration authorities are increasingly working with state and local police, especially in Republican-led states. And the result is what some immigration advocates have called a shadow surge, a quieter form of enforcement that has helped drive ICE arrests to record levels, often with far less public attention.

To help us understand what's happening, we're joined now by Lauren Villagran, a reporter with The Marshall Project. She was part of a team that analyzed ICE data obtained by the Deportation Data Project at U.C. Berkeley and UCLA.

Thanks for being with us.

Lauren Villagran, The Marshall Project:

Thanks for having me.

Geoff Bennett:

So, not long ago, immigration enforcement was highly visible. There were those major operations in Minneapolis and in Chicago. Now arrests are rising, but the approach is less conspicuous.

What changed?

Lauren Villagran:

Yes, I mean, I think for many Americans, the mass deportation campaign of President Donald Trump has largely faded into the background without these sort of in-your-face operations that we saw earlier this year in Chicago, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, et cetera.

But the reality is that, even though you're seeing fewer headlines, the number of immigration arrests has risen dramatically across the country. Especially over the summer, we saw a massive uptick in arrests and the highest level ever in August.

Geoff Bennett:

So where are these arrests increasing, and why?

Lauren Villagran:

Yes, so, this year, we've seen immigration arrests more than double in 15 states and Washington, D.C. I mean, there are the usual suspects like Texas and Florida, which have long been top enforcers for the Trump administration's mass deportation program.

But we're also seeing pretty dramatic increases in communities across the country. Geoff, one of the things we have seen is more than 2,000 agreements between state and local law enforcement to conduct immigration stops.

Geoff Bennett:

And what does that look like in practice, these agreements with these state and local law enforcement agencies that have now a hand in immigration enforcement?

Lauren Villagran:

Yes, so it looks different in different states.

For example, in Republican-led Florida, you have got the Florida State Highway Patrol conducting immigration stops and handing thousands of immigrants stopped for minor traffic violations over to ICE. And then you have got enforcement like we see in Butler County, Ohio, where a single sheriff's department has 44 deputies trained and deputized to conduct ICE-style arrests and hand immigrants over to ICE.

You know, that's a quarter of the force in this particular town. States like Ohio and Missouri don't represent a majority of the arrests, but you have seen a really dramatic increase. Ohio, at the end of the Biden administration, had just 20 of these agreements with the federal government to conduct immigration stops. Today, they have 20.

In Missouri, that number is 130. So the enforcement has been less covered by the national media, in part because it's happening on the backs of state and local law enforcement. It's hard to know when it's a traffic stop and when it's an immigration stop.

Geoff Bennett:

And that's by design? The administration wanted the same results without the level of public confrontation and public attention.

Lauren Villagran:

So you saw President Trump fire Border Patrol commander at large Greg Bovino earlier this year, as well as Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

When the new homeland security secretary, Markwayne Mullin, came in, he promised results without the headlines. And that's what we have seen over the past six months. So, while many Americans may not be paying as much attention, given the enforcement style, immigrant communities are feeling it.

Geoff Bennett:

There's also the question, Lauren, of who is being arrested. The administration makes the case that these deportees, that these detainees have criminal records. What does the data actually show?

Lauren Villagran:

Right. We keep hearing that phrase the worst of the worst.

The reality is -- and this data has been pretty consistent over the past year -- that, in a snapshot in July, when there were more than 65,000 people detained, 70 percent had no criminal conviction.

Geoff Bennett:

And while we have you, Lauren, late this afternoon, federal appeals court rejected the president's third-country deportation policy.

Quickly, remind us what that is. This will certainly be appealed, but bring us up to speed.

Lauren Villagran:

Right.

So this isn't just a Trump administration thing. We'd seen this previously in past administrations, where the executive branch would strike an agreement with a so-called third country, when, for example, nationals of countries where it's hard to deport people like China or Cuba or Venezuela, they would potentially send those detainees to another country like Mexico or Ecuador.

The difference now is that the Trump administration has struck dozens of these deals and sent nearly 30,000 people to a country that isn't the country they came from. That's according to Human Rights First.

Geoff Bennett:

Lauren Villagran, reporter with The Marshall Project, thanks again for your time this evening.

Lauren Villagran:

Thank you.