Immigration arrests spike but deportations lower since start of Trump Administration

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Striking images of immigration raids have been all over your screens since President Donald Trump took office.

In February, we were there as state troopers stopped people on roads and parking lots in Liberty County, eventually reporting 118 arrests in the Colony Ridge subdivision.

"We're getting questions like, 'If I give a parishioner a ride to church and he or she is undocumented, is that transporting? If we open a soup kitchen or a warming center, is that harboring undocumented immigrants?" immigration attorney Ross Miller said.

Miller said he tells all his clients the same thing.

"When we look at the actual numbers of flights going out, the actual numbers of flights being affected, it's comparatively small compared to previous administrations," he said.

According to the nonprofit Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, even though arrests are up, overall deportation numbers are lower than they were under President Biden this time last year.

"When you affect a raid at a place like Colony Ridge, you might detain people who already have deportation orders, people with a criminal record, but you're also going to sweep more broadly and take more people who don't have a deportation order and even an undocumented person has due process rights, so they can claim relief from removal," Miller explained.

Right now, he said immigration courts are backed up, so it takes about five years to see a judge.

Even if the judge rules you should be deported, you can appeal, which will give you another two or so years.

Deportation rarely moves quickly.

"There are not hundreds of people that were removed from Colony Ridge and were sent via deportation flights," Miller said. "That just didn't happen."

The Harris County Jail has long led the country in ICE detainers, meaning the jail often places holds on inmates suspected of violating immigration laws until federal agents can take them into custody.

Since the start of the Trump administration, detainers across the state have decreased.

It's unclear why that has happened or what its impact will be, but it does show a shift in strategy, moving away from local enforcement and toward federal enforcement of immigration policy.

Some say it shows a federal administration determined to rely on policies that create unforgettable images.

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