Which states has ICE been sent to since 2025
Executive summary
Since January 2025, reporting shows ICE enforcement activity on two levels: concentrated, high-profile federal surges — most visibly in Minnesota — and a broader expansion of detention and local cooperation that touches dozens of states through jail contracts and 287(g) agreements (Prison Policy; Operation Metro Surge; POGO) [1][2][3].
1. The short answer: named state deployments and national scope
The clearest, documented federal surge sent agents to Minnesota — a deployment of roughly 2,000 federal agents to the Minneapolis–Saint Paul area has been publicly described as the largest operation of its kind (PBS; Wikipedia) — and multiple other states have seen formal support roles tied to ICE through National Guard or state-authorized mobilizations and large increases in detention capacity [4][2][5].
2. Minnesota: the flagship surge and legal fallout
Minnesota received the most explicit, concentrated federal deployment: DHS announced “Operation Metro Surge” and reports describe about 2,000 agents sent to the Minneapolis–Saint Paul region in December 2025–January 2026, a move that produced lawsuits and local scrutiny over arrest tactics and court-order violations in the state (PBS; Wikipedia; Massachusetts AG statement referencing 3,000 officers sent to Minnesota) [4][2][6].
3. States that mobilized National Guard or other state support for ICE operations
A Newsweek map and reporting show that governors and National Guard bureaus in several GOP-led states authorized forces to support ICE; states that moved forward with Guard activations include Florida, Idaho, Iowa, Tennessee, Virginia and South Dakota, while Nevada, Louisiana and South Carolina were reported as considering or in process — and an authorization list also named Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, Texas, Utah, Vermont and Wyoming [5].
4. Broader footprint via jails, contracts and interior arrests — dozens of states
Beyond headline federal surges, ICE dramatically increased use of local and county jails and reopened or added scores of detention sites in 2025, expanding to 59 new facilities and reopening 77 others and using over 100 more facilities compared with the start of the year — a footprint that implicates facilities and agreements in roughly 40 states via new 287(g)-style partnerships and county contracts (POGO; American Immigration Council) [3][7].
5. Where evidence is strong and where it’s thin: reading the signals
Public sources give strong, direct evidence for a Minnesota surge and for state-level National Guard authorizations and activations listed by Newsweek, and they document nation‑wide expansion of detention capacity and local cooperation that means ICE presence or influence in many states [2][5][7]; what the reporting does not uniformly provide is a single, authoritative list of every state where ICE personnel physically conducted arrests at every moment in 2025–26, and some sources conflate administrative support flows (deployed federal employees, contracted jail beds) with boots-on-the-ground enforcement actions [8][1].
6. What this means in practice and the limits of public reporting
The practical takeaway is twofold: Minnesota is the most visible site of a concentrated federal enforcement surge [4][2], and many other states have either provided formal support to ICE (National Guard or Guard authorization) or have seen increased ICE detention capacity and local enforcement partnerships — a nationwide apparatus rather than a handful of isolated state deployments; however, precise day‑by‑day lists of where individual ICE teams operated are not compiled in any single public source provided here, and arrest-count tables exist by state for 2025 but require careful interpretation (Prison Policy; ICE statistics) [1][9].