Which U.S. cities have seen the largest ICE at-large arrest operations since 2024?

1. Minneapolis–St. Paul: the operation labeled “largest” and its consequences

Federal coverage and local reporting show an intensive, months-long ICE deployment dubbed Operation Metro Surge that placed thousands of agents in the Twin Cities, drew widespread protests and sparked claims from officials and advocates that it was the agency’s largest domestic operation ever; journalists and outlets documented armed, masked agents making arrests in public spaces and a planned detention/transportation network spanning five states tied to the deployment (PBS, The Guardian, The New York Times, WIRED) ^{[1] [7] [2] [8]}.

2. Chicago: a high-volume raid cited in regional reporting

Midwestern reporting and the Deportation Data Project have been used to attribute a very large ICE action in Chicago—an “Operation Midway Blitz”—with media accounts estimating roughly 1,600–1,900 arrests in a multi-city operation in 2025; local dispatch coverage treats that as one of the largest single-city tallies reported publicly ^{[3] [4]}.

3. Houston and Texas: leading city and state-level concentrations

Chron reporting and local analyses identify Houston as a leading city for ICE arrests overall, and state-level maps and reporting show Texas consistently at or near the top of arrest counts since 2024; crucially, many Texas arrests have been conducted via local jails and custodial transfers rather than only street-level “at-large” raids, a distinction highlighted in local and national coverage ^{[4] [9] [5]}.

4. Other hotspots: California, Florida and dispersed county clusters

National mappings and advocacy datasets place California and Florida among the states with the highest total ICE arrests in the post‑2024 period, and TRAC/other analyses show arrests concentrate heavily in a small number of counties—meaning that while headline cities draw attention, much enforcement also occurs in specific county lockups and through intergovernmental transfers ^{[5] [10] [6]}.

5. How “largest” is being measured—and why comparisons are fraught

Sources vary in their metrics: agency statements emphasize personnel deployed; media reports may count arrests tied to named operations; independent trackers focus on bookings into ICE custody or county-level totals; and several outlets warn standard ICE datasets omit CBP and judicial warrant details, making apples‑to‑apples comparisons impossible without shared methodology (PBS, Prison Policy, TRAC) ^{[1] [11] [6]}.

6. Competing narratives and hidden agendas in coverage

ICE and DHS frame operations as targeting public-safety threats and fraud, emphasizing removals of people with criminal histories, while local activists, mayors and civil‑liberties groups portray the deployments as broadgoing, disruptive and sometimes illegal—with some reportage noting political motives and the administration’s stated goal of dramatically increasing removals; watchdog and civil‑liberties organizations also flag increased surveillance spending that enables far-reaching operations ^{[1] [7] [12] [8]}.

7. Bottom line and limits of current reporting

The clearest consensus across the provided reporting is that Minneapolis–St. Paul and Chicago have hosted among the largest publicly reported at-large ICE operations since 2024, with Houston and major activity across Texas, California and Florida forming additional high-volume centers; however, major data gaps remain—ICE’s public counts, the mixing of jail-based versus at-large arrests, and differing media methodologies mean definitive ranking beyond those headline examples cannot be established from the available sources ^{[1] [3] [4] [5] [6]}.