Is ice targeting hard working migrant workers?
Executive summary
1. Evidence shows ICE operations have increasingly swept workplaces and construction sites where many migrants labor, producing arrests of people without criminal records and sparking community outcry [1] [2] [3]. While the administration says enforcement focuses on criminals, multiple reports and data point to a pattern that includes routine targeting of employees at factories, farms, building sites and service workplaces [4] [5] [6].
2. The scale and tools of enforcement make workplace-focused actions a central feature of recent ICE activity: congressional funding and administration directives have expanded capacity for interior enforcement and workplace raids, and reporting documents raids at a Meta data center, a Hyundai plant and smaller factories and construction sites [4] [7] [7]. Independent trackers and advocacy organizations record sharp rises in at-large arrests, roving patrols and worksite raids, and note detention populations and facilities grew substantially in 2025 as ICE used dozens more sites and even tent camps [8] [3].
3. Statistics published in contemporaneous reporting underline that a substantial share of those detained on ICE’s watch have no criminal convictions: ICE data cited in coverage showed about 41% of people in custody in late November had no convictions or pending criminal charges beyond alleged immigration violations, and watchdog groups documented huge percentage surges in arrests of people without criminal records early in the administration [4] [8]. That data supports claims by immigrant advocates that many of those affected by raids are working people rather than public-safety threats [3] [9].
4. Local scenes and human stories corroborate the workplace focus: recent raids in Minnesota, New Jersey and Illinois included factory and construction-site operations where groups of workers were detained, prompting union and community responses calling the actions harmful to workers and local economies and alleging repeated harassment at specific employer sites [1] [2] [10]. Reporting also documents mass arrests in a Chicago apartment-building operation and allegations that agents separated people by race and national origin during a high-profile raid—details that fed broader criticism of tactics and discretion used in interior enforcement [11].
5. Officials and some reporting present an alternate frame: the administration publicly emphasizes targeting criminals and has signaled a narrowing toward serious offenders amid political backlash, and some outlets say DHS is shifting tactics in response to negative polling [6]. The executive branch’s stated priorities and public statements about avoiding certain economic sectors—agriculture and hospitality, in at least one quoted instance—provide a competing explanation for selective enforcement decisions even as workplace actions continue [7] [7].
6. Patterns, policy levers and contested motives: the convergence of large new funding, directives to increase interior arrests, and documented worksite operations creates a policy environment in which ICE can and does conduct workplace raids at scale—supporting the conclusion that hard-working migrant employees are being targeted in practice, even if officials insist their legal aim is different [4] [3] [5]. Advocacy groups and labor unions argue these operations inflict economic harm and trauma and point to specific repeated site raids to show a de facto focus on workers rather than criminal networks [10] [9].
7. Limits and outstanding questions: reporting provides abundant examples of workplace raids and data on detainees without criminal records, but sources diverge on whether policy has formally shifted to focus solely on convicted criminals [6] and on internal decision-making about which employers or sectors are protected [7]. There is credible reporting of both broad interior enforcement and some stated efforts to prioritize serious offenses; the available material documents practices and consequences more clearly than it can prove a single unified motive behind every operation [4] [8] [6].
8. Bottom line: based on the contemporaneous reporting, ICE is conducting increased workplace and interior enforcement that routinely ensnares hardworking migrant employees—many without criminal convictions—which has produced protests, union pushback and scrutiny of tactics, even as officials maintain they are focused on criminals and have signaled some tactical changes in response to political pressure [1] [3] [6].