ICE arrests across upstate New York have doubled in recent months, records show — and four of every five cases now involve people with no criminal history.
Total arrests across upstate topped 600 in July, the most recent full month of data available, adding to what was a record 1,500 arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement across all of New York state.
The upswing — detailed in government data that ICE provided to the Deportation Data Project based at U.C. Berkeley and UCLA — shows the administration getting closer to its target of 2,000 daily arrests. The increase coincides with Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin taking the reins in March and promising a quieter but more effective approach.
And it comes as plans move forward to erect a 100-bed "temporary detention structure” at the Buffalo Service Processing Center in Batavia — expanding the only ICE detention facility upstate. Homeland Security filed notice last week that it plans to award a sole source or no-bid contract for the project to Akima Infrastructure Protection, LLC, a U.S. contractor tied to human rights abuses at Guantanamo Bay.
Regional and statewide numbers mirror national trends as ICE target people accused of civil immigration violations but not charged with or convicted of any crimes, records show. ICE recorded nearly 50,000 arrests nationwide in July.
“We have seen patterns,” said Melina Ivanchikova, a founding member of the Finger Lakes Rapid Response Network, which assists families of undocumented immigrants. “For example, the 104 corridor from Williamson to Rochester is heavily surveilled. There's constant reports of ICE activity. And the pattern seems to be like an intense period of two or three weeks, and then a lull."
Not all arrests result in detention. Those who are detained upstate increasingly are still pursuing legal status, and are not under a final order of removal, according to the data processed by the Deportation Data Project and analyzed by WXXI News. That marks a stark departure from past practice.
ICE historically has focused on those already ordered removed by a judge. Data show that was true in 85% of all upstate arrests when President Donald Trump returned to office — but in just 25% this past July.
As Ivanchikova noted, the number of arrests has risen in waves during Trump’s second term, hitting peaks upstate in July 2025, again in December, and now July. Calls to Ivanchikova's group seemed to decrease in August, she said. The group covers Yates, Ontario, Wayne, Seneca and Cayuga counties.
“In July, we had the most intense period in the existence of our network, with the most number of calls and support needs,” Ivanchikova said. “In all those cases, men were taken but not women, and women and children were left behind. In some cases, women who weren't working.
"And so there's sort of this, I think, underreported social dimension of what it looks like when families are fractured, and when children have parents who've been plucked away suddenly.”
In a statement, a DHS spokesperson said the agency could not comment on the “source, accuracy, or completeness" of the data, nor the analysis, adding: “The bottom line is that the Deportation Data Project is not accurate.”
“Since Day One of the Trump Administration, DHS law enforcement has been delivering on President Trump’s promise to the American people to arrest and deport criminal illegal aliens including murderers, rapists, child predators, gang members, and terrorists,” the statement reads.
The statement claims that the majority of those arrested are people charged or convicted of a crime. The data shows the opposite, with convicted violent offenders accounting for less than 5% of arrests locally and nationally in July.
WXXI News had requested supporting data from the government if it disputed the numbers. No such data was provided.
“More than 3 million illegal aliens are out of the country and counting,” the DHS statement concluded. “Our message is clear: if you come to our country illegally, we will find you, we will arrest you, and we will deport you.”
Ivanchikova sees it differently.
“What I imagine is that our society is kind of like a healthy fabric,” she said, “and then as you pluck people out, you have a moth-eaten blanket that eventually will fall apart.”
Includes reporting by staff writer Jose Sandoval.