The ICE Arrest Numbers Are In and They Prove Exactly What Trump Said About Sanctuary Cities
Democrats spent a year covering the loudest ICE operations in America.
The quietest ones just turned out to be the most effective.
New data shows which cities are actually getting criminals off the street – and the results destroy every argument Democrats have made about sanctuary policies.
Florida and San Antonio Are Running Up the Score
ICE is averaging more than 1,100 arrests per day nationally in 2026 – nearly double the pace from last spring.
The cities generating those numbers are not the ones you saw on the news.
The Miami Field Office – covering Florida, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands – logged nearly 10,000 arrests between mid-December and March 10, outpacing Dallas, Atlanta, and San Antonio.
No surge operation.
No federal troops flooding the streets.
No protests shutting down neighborhoods.
San Antonio followed the same pattern – arrests climbing steadily all year, no headline operations, no drama.
Both cities share one thing: local law enforcement that works with ICE instead of obstructing it.
When a criminal alien gets booked into a Florida county jail, ICE is already waiting.
No street chase.
No confrontation.
Just a transfer – and a criminal off the street.
That is the custodial arrest model, and it is the most efficient enforcement tool ICE has.
About half of all ICE arrests nationwide in 2025 came from custodial transfers – cases where ICE takes someone already in law enforcement custody from another agency.
These arrests were far more common in Republican-led states where sheriffs and local police cooperate with federal authorities.
In sanctuary jurisdictions, they were far less common.
The Cities That Made Headlines Made Fewer Arrests
Chicago generated some of the biggest immigration enforcement news of last year during Operation Midway Blitz.
Its field office covers six states.
It still sits below the national per-capita average.
Los Angeles and Denver both peaked last summer and have been declining since.
In sanctuary areas broadly, the arrest rate is flat or barely moving.
The pattern is consistent: high-visibility operations produce a spike, then a drop.
Florida has been climbing steadily all year.
The difference is not effort – it is cooperation.
ICE's own Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said it plainly: "We need state and local law enforcement cooperation, so we don't have to have such a presence on the streets."
When sheriffs hand criminal aliens directly to ICE from secure custody, agents do not have to find those same people later – in neighborhoods, in front of cameras, in situations that generate conflict and headlines.
Sanctuary policies eliminate that handoff.
They do not protect communities.
They force ICE into the streets and make every arrest harder, more dangerous, and more expensive.
What the Data Proves
Florida's numbers did not happen by accident.
DeSantis spent four years building the infrastructure behind them – ICE partnerships with 17 Florida sheriffs, formal cooperation agreements, and liability protection for local law enforcement working with federal authorities.
Operation Tidal Wave produced more than 10,000 arrests in eight months before 2026 even started.
The Miami Field Office has logged 41,000 arrests since Trump returned to office.
The cities blocking that cooperation are not protecting anyone.
They are handing ICE a harder, more dangerous job and then complaining when enforcement looks messy.
Florida and San Antonio proved the alternative.
No spectacle.
No chaos.
Just the highest arrest numbers in the country – and a blueprint every state could follow tomorrow if their governors had the spine to do it.
Democrats can keep arguing about tactics.
The data already picked a winner.
Sources:
- Albert Sun, Allison McCann and Hamed Aleaziz, "New Data Shows Where ICE Has Been Most Active This Year," The New York Times, March 20, 2026.
- "Florida Leads Nation in ICE Arrests So Far This Year," Fox News, March 22, 2026.
- "ICE, 17 Florida Sheriffs Announce New Enforcement Partnership," National Sheriffs' Association.
- Tom Homan Press Conference, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Fox 9, February 12, 2026.
- Andrew R. Arthur, "Sanctuary Cities' Criminal Alien Conundrum," Center for Immigration Studies, March 19, 2026.
