NEW YORK CITY — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents conducted 430 street arrests in the New York metropolitan area between October 2025 and mid-March 2026, with 93% involving Latinos, following a September 2025 Supreme Court ruling that permitted stops based on apparent race, ethnicity, language, or accent. The high court’s 6-3 decision removed prior constitutional barriers to such enforcement tactics.

Court records show ICE agents frequently detained individuals who were not their intended targets, holding them solely because they resembled those sought in skin color or accent. In one February 2026 incident in Staten Island, agents searching for a 25-year-old Mexican man named Julio instead arrested a 36-year-old Guatemalan man named Isaias and a 21-year-old Guatemalan man named Juan. A third man, 47-year-old Alejandro, was also taken into custody after leaving a building under surveillance. All three were detained, and the first two later left the country. One man claims ICE agents called him a “maldito Mexicano,” or a “fucking Mexican,” during his arrest. Latinos constitute 66% of the undocumented population in the region, according to available estimates.

Nationwide, ICE carried out more than 400,000 arrests during the first 14 months of President Donald Trump’s second term, per the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. A Cato Institute analysis found a rising share of these apprehensions involved Latinos with no criminal records or outstanding deportation orders. Trump signed an executive order on his first day back in office directing the Department of Homeland Security secretary to expand 287(g) agreements, which deputize local law enforcement to perform immigration enforcement functions. Court records obtained by The City document over 1,200 total ICE arrests in the New York City area during the same period as the 430 street arrests. Individuals seeking release from ICE detention must file a habeas corpus petition, a legal process that can take weeks or months to resolve.