A new report by the Prison Policy Initiative reveals the critical and largely hidden role that local jails are playing in advancing President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda during his second term.
“Hiding in Plain Sight: How Local Jails Obscure and Facilitate Mass Deportation Under Trump,” concludes that local jails have become “an essential part of implementing President Trump’s mass arrest and deportation agenda,” despite longstanding “sanctuary” policies intended to curb such collaboration.
“The Trump administration is transforming what are normally civil immigration matters into more serious federal crimes,” according to the report. “This shift hides the true scale of immigrant detention from public view, which is often reported as only those in ICE custody and does not include those facing criminal prosecution.”
According to ICE’s own June 2025 data, approximately 57,200 individuals were detained on an average day. But the report finds that when accounting for detainees held under U.S. Marshals Service custody and in local jails for immigration-related offenses, the actual number climbs to around 83,400—a 45% increase over official ICE figures.
The report shows that nearly half of all ICE arrests in 2025 came from transfers out of local jails, many of which are under contracts with the U.S. Marshals. In fact, between January and May 2025 alone, federal agents booked 20,000 people into federal pretrial detention on immigration charges.
“Minor traffic violations or driving without a license are all that ICE needs to make an arrest,” researchers noted. “Most people in jails have not been convicted of a crime…most are held for low-level offenses like loitering and public intoxication, not violent crimes.”
The Trump administration, the report argues, has managed to bypass sanctuary protections by prosecuting immigration violations as federal crimes, thus shifting people into jails with federal detention contracts—even in states and counties with so-called sanctuary policies.
This strategy has allowed ICE to exploit a loophole in which U.S. Marshals contracts with local jails override sanctuary laws. That means jurisdictions that claim to shield immigrants are, in practice, enabling mass detention when they contract with federal agencies for jail space.
“Every county with a U.S. Marshals contract is effectively signed up for [Trump’s] mass detention and deportation agenda regardless of whether they have sanctuary policies on their books,” the report said.
States Aligning With or Pushing Back Against Trump’s Strategy
Florida stands out as the most aggressive state in aligning with Trump’s strategy.
Governor Ron DeSantis called a special session earlier this year to enact laws that force local jurisdictions to cooperate with ICE. Sheriffs now face removal if they refuse to comply, and officers receive $1,000 bonuses for participating in immigration raids.
ICE records show immigration detention in Florida jails quadrupled this year between January 20 and June 26, jumping from 236 to 974 people. In response to a raid, the Pinellas County Sheriff emptied an entire jail unit to make space for ICE detainees, forcing other incarcerated individuals to sleep on the floor.
Florida’s State Immigration Enforcement Council also pushed for waiving federal detention standards and proposed opening a 10,000-bed facility. The federal government has already agreed to fund what has been dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” in the Everglades, where ICE is reportedly testing new legal strategies to expand its authority.
The report warns that these developments have not only expanded detention but also exacerbated due process violations.
“Federal prosecutors can threaten people arrested by ICE with federal charges carrying years in prison and large fines, discouraging immigrants from making asylum claims or asserting their rights,” the report notes. “The threat of federal criminal prosecution effectively coerces people into compliance and speeds up the racist deportation machine.”
In contrast, places like California, Massachusetts, Illinois, and New York have reduced ICE arrests at local jails by limiting cooperation, but they remain vulnerable to field operations and courthouse arrests. The report notes that in May, large-scale raids still occurred in Massachusetts and California.
Jacob Kang-Brown, the report’s author, urges local governments to recognize their power in this system.
“The federal detention network in the United States is big — bigger than many realize—but if they want to arrest and detain so many people, they will have to use local jails, and in most places, those jails can refuse,” Kang-Brown wrote.
The report also raises alarms about ICE’s new $45 billion detention budget, which will last through September 2029—nearly triple what the agency previously spent. Much of it is expected to flow to local jails through contracts with sheriffs.
Kang-Brown concluded, “If counties decide to build larger jails to accommodate federal demand, even using federal dollars, they will be stuck maintaining them, and there are far better uses of public money to improve public safety locally than large jails.”
Source: Published without changes from Washington Informer Newspaper
