A sweeping new investigation has put hard numbers to a fear that has gripped Latino neighborhoods across the New York region for months: when federal immigration agents made arrests on the street, the people they grabbed were overwhelmingly Latino — far beyond what the local population would explain.
The investigation, led by the nonprofit newsroom THE CITY and corroborated by HuffPost, Documented, and NY1, reviewed every emergency detention lawsuit filed in three federal courts across the region between October 2025 and March 2026. The reporters identified 430 ICE street arrests across the New York metro area, including Long Island and New Jersey. More than 93% of the people taken off the street were from Latin American countries — even though Latinos make up only about 66% of the region’s undocumented population.
What the Investigation Found
The reporters built their database from habeas corpus petitions — the emergency lawsuits people file to challenge the legality of their detention. By examining every such case filed in three federal courts over five months, they assembled the clearest picture yet of who was being stopped, and where.
The pattern was stark. Arrests clustered in heavily Latino communities — from Passaic and Plainfield in New Jersey to Brentwood and Hempstead on Long Island. People described being seized in the most ordinary moments: buying milk, walking the dog, taking out the trash, or picking up their children. The gap between the 93% arrest share and the 66% population share is the core of the concern: it suggests people were being singled out at a rate that their numbers alone cannot explain.
The “Collateral” Arrests
The investigation also documented a heavy reliance on so-called “collateral” arrests — cases where agents detained people they were not originally looking for. A large share of those swept up had no criminal convictions and no pending charges at all. They were not the targets of any operation; they simply happened to be present, and to fit a profile.
That detail matters because immigration enforcement has long been publicly justified as a tool for removing dangerous criminals. The data tells a different story for these street arrests: many of those detained were ordinary residents with clean records, caught up in operations aimed at someone else entirely.
Judges Push Back
The tactics have not gone unchallenged. As the lawsuits piled up, federal judges increasingly described the arrests as illegal, with some questioning whether agents had any lawful basis for the stops. Civil rights attorneys have argued the arrests violate constitutional protections against unreasonable seizures and discriminatory enforcement.
And the 430 figure is almost certainly an undercount. Only about one in ten detained immigrants files a habeas petition, meaning the lawsuits capture just a slice of the total. The real number of street arrests across the region is likely far higher than what the court records reveal.
What This Means for Americans
It is important to be precise about scope: this investigation examined street arrests in the New York metro area, not every ICE arrest nationwide. But within that region, the findings raise a question that reaches well beyond immigration policy. When a government enforcement operation produces results this lopsided by ethnicity — and sweeps up people with no criminal record in the process — it touches the basic promise that the law treats people equally.
For the families living in these neighborhoods, the effect is measured in fear: a reluctance to walk to the store, drop kids at practice, or answer the door. For everyone else, it is a test of whether the courts and elected officials will demand answers about how these operations were run, and who authorized them.
Stay informed on the stories that matter most. Follow Your Daily Updates on Facebook and bookmark yourdailyupdates.news for breaking news and analysis.