What we know about how ICE arrests have increased in Utah under Trump

At least 3,040 immigration arrests happened in Utah in 2025, according to data from the Deportation Data Project. (Illustration by Alex Cochran for Utah News Dispatch, image courtesy of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement)

After President Donald Trump returned to the White House last January and launched an aggressive immigration crackdown, at least 3,040 immigration arrests have happened in Utah — more than double the number of arrests under former President Joe Biden’s administration in 2024.

Of those, slightly more than half of the arrests in Utah last year — 55% or 1,685 — have been of people with criminal convictions. But that’s not so for the other 45%.

About 27.4% or 832 arrests were of people with what immigration officials categorized as having pending criminal charges at the time of their arrests. And the other 522 arrests — making up about 17% — were detained solely for alleged immigration violations. That’s more than six times the number of immigration arrests in Utah of people with no criminal record (82, or a 7% share) under former President Joe Biden’s administration in 2024.

That’s according to data obtained through public information requests and litigation by the  Deportation Data Project, a group of academics and lawyers that collects and shares anonymized U.S. government immigration enforcement datasets, and compiled into a dashboard developed by Relevant Research, a research group focused on immigration data. 

The dashboard includes Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrest data dating back to September 2023 and through Oct. 15, 2025. Monthly arrest data in that time frame show a clear uptick in ICE arrests starting last January and continuing through 2025, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement data obtained and processed by the Deportation Data Project, and analyzed by Utah News Dispatch. 

Because about 16% of the government data provided to the Deportation Data Project is missing state information, the number of immigration arrests in Utah may be higher.

Through 2025, the share of arrests of people in Utah solely for alleged immigration violations and no pending or criminal charges have also grown compared to 2024.

From September 2023 to December 2024, 1,457 immigration arrests took place in Utah, according to the dashboard. Of those, 71% (1,034) were of people with criminal convictions. About 22% (322) were of people with pending criminal charges, and less than 7% (101) were solely for alleged immigration violations. 

The data paints a statistical picture of ICE operations in Utah. Under Trump, ICE arrests of all types are up — and a majority include those with criminal convictions. But even if it’s a smaller percentage, there’s a growing share of people arrested by ICE with no criminal record. 

Notably, Utah’s share of immigrant arrests solely for alleged immigration violations is smaller than the national share of those arrested with no criminal record, which makes up roughly one-third of immigrants arrested nationwide. 

While high-profile ICE operations in major cities like Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Massachusetts have resulted in more than half of those arrested with no criminal record, according to The New York Times, operations in the red state of Utah haven’t been as aggressive. 

However, the numbers only go so far to tell the story of what’s been happening in the Beehive State, where ICE operations have largely flown under the radar — except for certain arrests that have sparked outcry. 

Among them was an arrest of a woman at the Salt Lake City International Airport — which went viral after a video posted on social media showed four plain-clothes ICE officers take her away as she screamed for help. 

In the state’s Democratic stronghold of Salt Lake City, leaders condemned the arrest. Mayor Erin Mendenhall said she was left “aching from the fear and pain these types of operations keep striking in my heart and the hearts of so many of us.” 

‘Worst of the worst’

While ICE officials under Trump have said they’re targeting the “worst of the worst,” critics including immigrant advocates and attorneys in Utah have criticized the Trump administration’s approach. 

They say the federal government’s tactics have been “broad” and “haphazard,” sweeping up too many otherwise law-abiding people while the nation’s immigration system remains broken and difficult to navigate.

Utah News Dispatch sent a request for comment to the Department of Homeland Security pointing to the data that shows arrests of all types are up in Utah, but also asking about the growing percentage of people in Utah who are being arrested solely on alleged immigrant violations. The department issued a statement from Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs, that has been provided to other news outlets maintaining the Trump administration is focused on “the worst of the worst.” 

“This story only reveals how the media manipulates data to peddle a false narrative that DHS is not targeting the worst of the worst,” McLaughlin said. “Nationwide our law enforcement is targeting the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens — including murderers, rapists, gang members, pedophiles, and terrorists.”

She added: “70% of illegal aliens ICE arrested across the country have criminal convictions or pending criminal charges just in the U.S. This statistic doesn’t account for those wanted for violent crimes in their home country or another country, INTERPOL notices, human rights abusers, gang members, terrorists, etc. The list goes on.”

The Department of Homeland Security statement also pointed to a list of press releases it said were examples of “non-criminals” arrested by ICE that are wanted for crimes allegedly committed outside of the U.S. 

The Department of Homeland Security has also created a “worst of the worst” dashboard to highlight arrests. As of Monday, about 250 arrests were listed on that dashboard from Utah. The dashboard lists their name, city where they were arrested, and what they were convicted of, according to the Department of Homeland Security. 

The convictions listed next to some of the highlighted arrests on the “worst of the worst” dashboard range from homicide, assault, sexual assault and drug trafficking. Some convictions listed, however, include nonviolent crimes such as fraud for making a false statement, forgery, and illegal re-entry. 

The dashboard doesn’t list dates for the arrests, but the 250 highlighted in Utah make up about 8% of the 3,040 immigration arrests that occurred in the state in 2025, according to Deportation Data Project data. It’s also less than 15% of the total number of people arrested (1,685) with criminal convictions in all of 2025 in Utah. 

While more than 80% of ICE arrests in 2025 in Utah have been of people with pending criminal charges or convictions, the increased enforcement on others without criminal records has raised alarms for immigration advocates and legal defenders.

With eyes on what’s happening both nationally and in their home state, they say the uptick of ICE operations — and particularly arrests of people with no criminal backgrounds — have left many immigrants, their families and their communities living in fear and uncertainty. 

They say the tactics — especially arrests of those seeking legal status at Salt Lake City’s U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office — have intimidated many to retreat further into the shadows. 

A human and economic cost

The cost of more aggressive immigration enforcement is both human and economic, said Bob Babcock, a longtime construction attorney specializing in an industry that is highly dependent on immigrant labor. 

“I feel like we are abusing this community,” Babcock told Utah News Dispatch in a recent interview. “And I am shocked that so many of our citizens don’t understand and they think it’s a simple solution — ‘Oh just go back and come legally,’ you know? That’s a bunch of crock.” 

Babcock said he wishes more people understood there’s not a simple “line” that undocumented immigrants wait in to obtain legal status. 

“There is no line for carpenters, concrete workers, drywall workers,” he said. “No such line exists.” Meanwhile, he said the industries are short employees because the natural birth rate in the U.S. has long been declining and fewer people are willing to work in labor-intensive fields. 

In a recent op-ed for the Deseret News, Babcock posed a question for leaders and residents of a state that has long been known to be welcoming and solutions-focused when it comes to immigrants and refugees: Are Utahns OK with what ICE is doing in their state? 

“Everybody’s very fearful,” Babcock told Utah News Dispatch, adding that his clients in the construction industry have seen workers occasionally being “picked up and detained.” 

“They’re losing guys. They’re not criminals. They’re not the ‘worst of the worst,’” he said. “That’s not who they’re getting. They’re getting anybody and everybody they can.” 

Babcock said he’s not aware of any major raids or large-scale arrests on job sites in Utah, but the arrests that have happened instill fear. That fear has been leading some to not show up to work at times. 

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“And the expectation is it’s going to get much worse,” he said. 

While Republicans and Democrats alike have for years agreed the nation’s immigration system is broken, nothing has been done about it, Babcock said. And the resulting reality is it’s common for undocumented people to work in construction and agriculture, and without them the industries would suffer, he said. 

The current approach, he said, is doing more harm than good. He called on Utah’s state and federal leaders to be courageous and stand up to the Trump administration and say what’s happening isn’t only inhumane — it’s damaging the workforce and economy. 

“Everyone should be standing up and saying, ‘We need a solution,’” he said. “Crushing the workforce day by day is not the solution.” 

What has Gov. Cox said about ICE enforcement in Utah?

In late 2024, Gov. Spencer Cox announced a “targeted” state effort to support the Trump administration’s immigration policies with an emphasis on immigrants “who have committed crimes and pose a threat to public safety.” 

“When it comes to immigration policy, the safety of Utah residents is my top priority,” Cox said in a statement at the time. “Utah will continue to welcome refugees and immigrants who enter the country lawfully, and we will continue pushing for reforms to the asylum process and for more visas to support our workforce needs. We have zero tolerance, however, for those who demonstrate a threat to public safety while in the country illegally.” 

When asked during his most recent news conference broadcast by PBS Utah on Nov. 25 about ICE operations in Utah becoming more frequent and aggressive, Cox said “my position hasn’t changed at all.” 

“My position is always that laws are supposed to be followed, that we are, I believe, the most welcoming state in the country when it comes to people who are seeking a new life and who are coming here,” he said. “But you also have to do it the right way, and that’s really important.” 

Cox added that his administration has been “very supportive of operations to enforce the law and will continue to be.” 

Cox’s office did not respond to multiple requests for comment for this story.  

‘Haphazard and broad enforcement’

Like the arrest data shows, civil rights advocates have noticed an uptick of ICE enforcement in Utah — and “we have seen an increase in detentions and arrests of folks that don’t have a criminal record or only have a record of more minor criminal offenses,” said Ellie Menlove, legislative and policy council for the ACLU of Utah. 

“We’re seeing more haphazard and broad enforcement without regard to a person’s criminal status,” Menlove said, “which is extremely worrying to us from a civil rights perspective, and it wasn’t what ICE said that they were going to do in the state.” 

The ACLU of Utah is part of the Utah Immigrant Advocacy Coalition — a group of organizations “committed to ensuring Utah remains a welcoming and supportive community for all immigrants, regardless of their status,” according to the coalition’s website. 

The ACLU of Utah has been keeping an up-to-date tracker of the various types of 287(g) agreements that state and local governments have adopted to give local police the power to enforce federal immigration law. In effect, the agreements can turn local officers into ICE agents, “fueling deportations, racial profiling, and fear in immigrant communities,” the ACLU of Utah says on the site. 

“This just creates a lot of fear in immigrant communities, and it’s overall very harmful to public safety in general when people are under the impression that a law enforcement agency is working with ICE,” said Molly Karasick, a legal fellow with the ACLU of Utah.

The different types of 287(g) agreements grant varying levels of power to local agencies to enforce immigration law — but they all have the same effect of giving the impression that those agencies are partnering with ICE, and that has a chilling effect on communities, Karasick said. 

“When you see that your local agencies partner with ICE, that gives a broad impression that they’re working with ICE and it undermines the community towards law enforcement in general,” she said. “And then, in effect, we have people who are scared to contact their local police or sheriff’s department because they’re under the impression that they’re working with immigration. And when people aren’t reporting crimes, that’s more dangerous for every single person.” 

There are three different types of 287(g) agreements — the Jail Enforcement Model, the Warrant Service Officer and the Task Force Model. 

The Task Force Model grants the most power and is the most concerning to civil rights advocates. Described by ICE as a “force multiplier,” it allows state and local law enforcement agencies to make immigration arrests during regular police enforcement.

The Jail Enforcement Model delegates some immigration authority to state and local law enforcement agencies to identify immigrants in state and local custody and place them into immigration proceedings. “Corrections officers in local jails, under the supervision of ICE, are deputized by the federal government to interrogate people in their custody about their immigration status and funnel people into the deportation pipeline,” the ACLU of Utah says. 

The Warrant Service Officer model grants limited powers, allowing ICE to train, certify and authorize state and local law enforcement officers to serve administrative immigration warrants on people who are in custody in their jails.  

‘One of the great horrors of our generation’

Immigration Attorney Nicholle Pitt White was among the attorneys last month warning immigrants to get legal consultation before going to appointments at the U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services field office in Salt Lake City due to reports that arrests of immigrants in the process of applying for legal status had started taking place there. 

Though data shows more than half of ICE arrests in Utah have been of people with criminal convictions, Pitt White said the growing number of people arrested solely based on alleged immigration violations is unjust. 

Pitt White said she takes the following legal principle of criminal justice to heart: “It’s better that 10 guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer.” 

“And I think that’s true for immigrants, too,” she said. “The vast majority of these people, even the ones with criminal history, their crimes are generally pretty minor.”

To Pitt White, what’s happening in the U.S. is “one of the great horrors of our generation.” 

She has multiple stories of aggressive ICE arrests from her own law firm. 

From a case that happened in Utah, Pitt White described seeing dashcam footage “of a dad that had his toddler in the car with him, that had a removal order, meaning a deportation order, but there was reason to believe that should be re-opened.” 

“ICE stopped him. They broke the window where his toddler was. They refused to identify themselves,” she said. “He didn’t know if they were actually ICE or just criminals trying to harm him and his kid, and he took off.” 

Thanks to the dashcam footage, Pitt White said she and her legal team were able to prove “he didn’t actually harm any of the ICE officers” in the face of federal officials accusing him of trying to cause intentional harm to a federal officer. “He was able to provide video evidence to prove that was a big fat lie.” 

“But that’s one of the most egregious things I’ve seen,” she said. 

Pitt White said she’s also heard of “several examples” in areas like West Valley City and Magna where “ICE has just kind of sat outside of apartment complexes that are heavily Latino, and they’ll just stop everyone on their way out and ask for papers. And they’ve, like, filled up vans of people and taken them away.” 

Compared to other states, Utah’s ICE operations aren’t as large-scale or high profile — but Pitt White noted Utah does have a fairly large immigrant population in parts of the state, and arrests are happening here, even though many go unreported in the media. 

“I think we had a false sense of security here because Utah is so red,” she said. “But the more we know and the more we’ve seen, it’s not any different here.” 

Like Babcock, Pitt White said she wishes Utah’s political leaders would stand up to what’s happening. Most immigrants are here seeking safety, not to cause trouble. 

“I’ve met so many people that have come here not just because they wanted to work and make a better life for themselves and their family, but because in their home country they were raped by multiple family members and the police refused to help them,” she said. “And the only place they felt they could be safe was here. Because here we follow the laws and we have police that will protect you and we care about your rights.” 

“It’s horrifying,” she said, “that that no longer seems to be the case.” 

Pitt White also urged people who might support the Trump administration’s actions to take a step back and recognize there are good people being swept up by ICE — it could be their neighbor, a friend, someone who cleans their house, or who works on a local farm or at a nearby mechanic shop. 

“Those are the people that they’re picking up. Everyone has someone that they know that is like that, that is a good person, that has no criminal history, that’s paying their taxes and trying to do everything they can to support their family,” she said. “But they refuse to see that humanity in the vast majority of people, and I think it’s shameful.”

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly included San Juan County in the list of counties that had executed 287(g) agreements. The American Civil Liberties Union of Utah had used information previously posted on the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s website for its 287(g) tracker, but later confirmed with the San Juan County Sheriff’s Office that the information provided by ICE was incorrect, and that county had not executed a 287(g) agreement.