Can ICE agents make arrests for non-federal crimes?

1. ICE’s baseline arrest powers: federal immigration violations and certain federal crimes

The statute that largely governs ICE arrest authority (8 U.S.C. §1357) authorizes immigration officers to interrogate and arrest aliens for immigration violations and to arrest for federal immigration felonies, and it permits warrantless arrests in some circumstances—such as when the officer believes the person will escape before a warrant can be obtained—so ICE routinely makes administrative arrests of noncitizens for being unlawfully present or otherwise removable ^{[1] [2] [5]}.

2. What ICE cannot do on its own: state crimes and the limits of civil detainers

State and local crimes remain in the province of state and local law enforcement unless a federal crime is involved, and civil immigration detainers—requests from ICE that jails hold a person—do not by themselves authorize a state officer to arrest or detain someone for an immigration civil violation; multiple advocates and state guidance stress that local officers lack legal authority to arrest solely on a federal civil detainer, and courts have found detainers and warrantless entries problematic under the Fourth Amendment in some cases ^{[6] [4] [7]}.

3. Deputization, task forces and the practical exceptions that blur the line

Federal law and ICE programs create important exceptions: Section 287(g) deputizes state and local officers to perform certain immigration functions when formally authorized, and task‑force models embed federal agents with local units so federal officers can act with local support; where local officers are deputized or cooperate extensively, ICE’s enforcement footprint expands and arrests that begin as local enforcement can end with federal custody ^{[3] [8]}.

4. Criminal investigations and HSI agents: federal investigators with broader arrest powers

Within DHS, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) special agents investigate transnational and local crimes that carry federal charges (e.g., trafficking, major fraud), and those agents are federal criminal investigators able to arrest for the federal offenses they investigate; this distinction—ERO immigration officers versus HSI criminal investigators—helps explain why some ICE‑branded arrests look like routine local police actions while others are conventional federal criminal enforcement ^{[9] [10]}.

5. State prosecution of federal officers and use‑of‑force accountability

Even when acting as federal officers, ICE agents are not beyond state challenge: courts have allowed state prosecutions against federal agents in some deadly‑force cases where force may have been excessive, and legal scholars note that state authorities can investigate and even charge federal officers though immunity doctrines will be litigated ^[11].

6. Bottom line and competing narratives

The bottom line: ICE agents can lawfully arrest for federal immigration violations and federal crimes, and can act in partnership with or through deputized state actors to effect arrests that touch state‑level enforcement, but they do not have a general, standalone license to arrest people solely for ordinary state crimes absent delegation, joint tasking, or exigent circumstances; reporting and policy debates tend to conflate ICE’s federal arrest power, aggressive administrative practices, and local cooperation patterns, so scrutiny over detainers, administrative warrants, and 287(g) arrangements remains central to understanding when an ICE arrest for a non‑federal matter might occur ^{[1] [4] [3] [5]}.