Which states have the highest rates of reported wrongful ICE arrests?
Executive summary
There is no authoritative, public dataset that directly measures “wrongful ICE arrests” by state, so any answer must lean on proxies—counts of interior ICE arrests, filings or reporting about releases without charges, and investigative accounts that identify problematic practices. National counts show the largest volumes of ICE enforcement in states such as Texas, Florida and California, which therefore also register the largest absolute numbers of disputed or later-questioned arrests; however, available reporting and administrative datasets do not support a reliable, comparative “rate of wrongful arrests” per state [1] [2] [3].
1. What the question actually asks and why existing data fall short
Asking which states have the highest rates of “wrongful ICE arrests” implies a measurable numerator (wrongful arrests) and denominator (total arrests or population), but ICE and public datasets do not publish a validated category called “wrongful” and often lack linked, standardized outcomes that would let researchers distinguish lawful from wrongful administrative arrests across jurisdictions; independent repositories like the Deportation Data Project hold FOIA-derived arrest records but require merges and interpretation to trace outcomes, which creates limits for comparative rate calculations [3] [4].
2. Which states register the most ICE arrests (the closest available proxy for disputed outcomes)
Reporting that maps ICE enforcement during recent operations shows Texas, Florida and California among the states with the highest numbers of arrests, which means they inevitably account for a large share of arrests later described in news coverage or local protests as problematic [1]. ICE’s own national statistics show how ERO conducts interior arrests across states and emphasize common arrest categories, but they do not tag arrests as “wrongful,” leaving volume as the only clear cross-state metric in many independent analyses [2].
3. Concentration at the county level and why that matters for “rate” assessments
Independent research finds that ICE arrest activity is heavily concentrated: more than a quarter of recent ICE arrests occurred in just ten counties and their surrounding areas, and half of arrests were similarly localized, meaning state-level rates can hide striking county-level disparities that drive complaints and claims of wrongful practice [5]. That concentration complicates state comparisons because a state with large, targeted county clusters will show many disputes in absolute terms even if the per-capita or per-arrest “wrongful” incidence is different [5].
4. Reporting that documents contested arrests, releases, and disputed classifications
Investigative coverage and reporting have documented individual cases where people were arrested and subsequently released without charges, or where state officials and critics have called particular operations overbroad; for example, news investigations and local reporting have highlighted arrests later questioned by state leaders and media, and DHS has publicly disputed some characterizations while acknowledging complicated realities on who is being detained [6]. Local reporting in places like Utah and Minnesota has also tracked rises in interior arrests and the mix of people with and without criminal convictions, fueling disputes over wrongful detentions [7] [8].
5. What credible research and watchdogs say about measuring “wrongful” arrests
Advocacy and research groups warn that recent policy shifts have increased arrests of people with no criminal convictions, which could inflate claims of wrongful or unjustified arrests—but those findings speak to trends and composition rather than a state-by-state wrongful arrest rate that can be robustly calculated from existing public data [9] [10] [11]. Scholars and data journalists emphasize that resolving this requires linked identifiers and consistent outcome tracking—tools the Deportation Data Project and TRAC try to provide but which still need standardization for cross-state rate comparisons [3] [12] [4].
6. Bottom line assessment
Based on the available evidence, Texas, Florida and California host the highest absolute numbers of interior ICE arrests and thus the largest documented volumes of contested or later-questioned arrests reported in media and researcher datasets, but there is no validated public metric to state which states have the highest rates of “wrongful” arrests per arrest or per capita; county-level concentrations, inconsistent reporting, and the absence of a standardized “wrongful” label in ICE data make any state-level rate ranking methodologically unsound without new, linked outcome data [1] [5] [2] [3] [4].