Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, arrests in Idaho have increased sharply compared to last year, a trend seen nationwide.
ICE numbers gathered by the Deportation Data Project at the University of California in Berkeley shows the immigration enforcement agency made more than 300 arrests in Idaho since January, up from 77 in 2024. The New York Times reports those numbers represent the largest increase of any state in the country.
“It does seem like the net is much broader,” said Talia Burnett an immigration lawyer in Nampa. “Clients that I would not have anticipated going into proceedings are arrested and put into proceedings.”
She said this is partially due to ICE losing the ability to issue bonds, meaning everybody that gets arrested is held and transferred instead of sent home while their case is being looked at.
“Now we are scrambling, everything's happening fast and people are getting moved really fast,” Burnett said, adding migrants are being held for minor infractions, like traffic violations.
Burnett said many fear being held in detention indefinitely or sent to a country they’ve never been to.
“I have a lot of clients that are just giving up and taking a voluntary departure or a self-deportation and not fighting,” she said.
In June, Gov. Brad Little called the presence of undocumented migrants a “public safety emergency" and announced the Idaho State Police had agreed to help ICE transport detainees from Idaho jails to immigration detention facilities.
