How many federal lawsuits have been filed against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the last five years?

1. No single tally in the available reporting — litigation is described case‑by‑case

The items in the search results are primarily individual news stories and press releases covering specific complaints — e.g., a class action against ICE for arrests at immigration courts (filed in D.C.) ^[1], a Baltimore federal class action over holding‑cell conditions ^[2], and suits alleging unlawful deportations of U.S. citizen children and families ^[3]. None of these pieces attempt to produce a comprehensive numerical total of federal lawsuits against ICE over a five‑year span; therefore an exact aggregate number is not available in the provided material (not found in current reporting) ^{[1] [2] [3]}.

2. Recent reporting shows a surge in high‑profile and class‑action filings in 2025

Several sources document high volumes of litigation and multiple class actions in 2025 alone: advocacy groups and NGOs filed suits challenging mass arrests at courthouses and bond‑eligibility changes, while local plaintiffs sued over detention conditions at converted prisons and processing centers ^{[1] [4] [5] [6]}. That pattern suggests increased legal activity, but available sources stop short of counting all filings nationally or over five years ^{[1] [4] [5] [6]}.

3. Types of federal claims being brought — civil rights, FTCA, class actions, and injunctive relief

The litigation described spans civil‑rights suits (e.g., challenges to arrests that deny due process or to alleged deportations of citizens) and Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) notices/claims where plaintiffs seek damages for unlawful detention or force ^{[3] [7] [8]}. Advocacy groups pursue class actions seeking injunctions to stop policies (e.g., stripping bond eligibility) while individual plaintiffs pursue monetary relief for alleged constitutional violations ^{[4] [3] [7]}.

4. Geographic spread and defendants named — ICE plus DHS and senior officials

Cases named ICE directly and often included the Department of Homeland Security, the Justice Department, and sometimes senior officials as defendants; filings come from multiple jurisdictions (D.C., Maryland, California, Illinois, New Orleans federal court filings cited) ^{[1] [2] [5] [9] [3]}. That decentralized pattern complicates any attempt to sum suits without an aggregated docket search ^{[1] [2]}.

5. Conflicting narratives and institutional responses

Advocates frame the litigation as accountability against abusive or illegal practices; government spokespeople and DHS/ICE statements in these items frequently defend agency practices or characterize some lawsuits as baseless (e.g., DHS denying certain claims or noting a dropped lawsuit) ^{[5] [10]}. These competing narratives — plaintiffs seeking systemic remedies vs. DHS/ICE defensive posture — appear throughout the reporting and may influence whether cases proceed, settle, or are dismissed ^{[5] [10]}.

6. Limitations of the available sources for producing a five‑year count

The provided collection consists of discrete news stories, advocacy press releases, and organization case lists (e.g., ACLU case pages) but lacks a national docket count, a DOJ/EOUSA aggregated dataset, or a centralized database query that would yield a five‑year total (not found in current reporting) ^{[11] [1]}. Any accurate five‑year figure would require cross‑searching PACER or a consolidated litigation tracker that the supplied sources do not include (not found in current reporting).

7. How to get an authoritative number if you need one

To produce an authoritative five‑year total you would need: (a) a PACER search for suits naming “U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement,” “ICE,” or related DHS components across federal districts; (b) queries of DOJ civil docket records and government settlements; and (c) aggregation of NGO/ACLU/NNIP case lists and press releases to capture private civil suits and class actions — steps not undertaken in the material provided here (not found in current reporting) ^{[11] [2]}.

Conclusion: the reporting in this set documents numerous federal lawsuits against ICE in 2025 — ranging from individual damages claims to nationwide class actions and injunctions — but these sources do not offer a compiled five‑year total. For a trustworthy numeric answer you will need a dedicated docket search (PACER/DOJ) or a consolidated litigation database, which the current reporting does not provide (not found in current reporting) ^{[1] [2] [4]}.