New research by University of Colorado Boulder economists finds daily ICE arrests have reached a record high, while the number of people being arrested with a criminal record reached a near-historic low.
The study, published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, examined the scale of ICE activity between 2015 and 2025. It found a 170% increase in daily ICE arrests since President Donald Trump took office for a second time.
“We’ve heard promises from the Trump administration that they will be going after the ‘worst of the worst’ and we’re using ICE’s own data to show that, in fact, the majority of people that ICE arrests in 2025 have no criminal conviction at arrest,” said Associate Professor of Economics at CU Boulder, Chloe East, one of the study’s authors…