Since President Donald Trump took office in January, federal agents arrested 1,432 undocumented immigrants in Michigan as of the end of July, and most had no criminal convictions, according to data from the Deportation Data Project.
The total is nearly triple the 523 arrests recorded during the same period in 2024, when Joe Biden was president, according to a Metro Times review of the data.
Despite Trump’s claims that his administration is targeting criminals, only 420 – or 29% – of those arrested by his administration in Michigan have been convicted of a crime. Another 31% had “pending criminal charges,” and most notably, about 40% had never been convicted of a crime.
Among those arrested were 11 children, including a girl no older than four. The oldest person was in his 80s.
That hasn’t stopped the U.S. Department of Homeland Security from claiming that agents are arresting the “worst of the worst.”
During the same time period last year, about half of the people arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Michigan had at least one criminal conviction and 24% had “pending criminal charges.” About 26% had no criminal record.
Those figures show that under Trump, ICE is arresting undocumented immigrants without criminal records at a much higher rate than it did under Biden.
Nationwide, the number of immigrants arrested by ICE with no criminal history surged from about 860 to 7,800 in June, an increase of more than 800%, according to Reuters.
In Michigan, a vast majority of those arrested were men. Only 86 were women.
The immigrants held citizenship in dozens of countries, from China and India to Haiti and Russia. But most were from Central and South America. Mexicans made up 37% of those arrested, followed by 17% from Venezuela, and 8% from Honduras.
Of those arrested under Trump, 864 have been deported.
Fears of mass deportations have shaken immigrant communities in Michigan, especially southwest Detroit, where families are keeping children from school and limiting time outside.
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In April, U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Detroit, joined the ACLU of Michigan and the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center (MIRC) to call out federal agents for arresting immigrants who took a wrong turn near the Ambassador Bridge in Southwest Detroit.
Tensions rose on June 30 when ICE agents, backed by Detroit police, swept into the Joy Road-Livernois neighborhood to detain Marcos Fabian Arita Bautista, a Honduran man. Protests erupted, and a man attempted to block ICE agents with his car. Two people were arrested, and Detroit cops used pepper spray on protesters.
Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, who is running for governor as an independent and is trying to appeal to Trump supporters, called undocumented immigrants “illegal” in January while speaking to business leaders. When called out by pro-immigration groups, Duggan dismissed the criticism as “political correctness.”
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This article appears in Aug 20 – Sep 2, 2025.