Immigration arrests have seen a significant increase in Colorado and Wyoming since President Donald Trump took office in January, with numbers quadrupling in Colorado and nearly tripling in Wyoming. New data from the federal government highlights a marked shift in who is being targeted in these states.
Between January 20 and June 26 of this year, most of the individuals arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Colorado and Wyoming did not have any prior criminal convictions. The only significant offenses logged were often linked to drunken driving incidents in both states, according to the data.
The information, sourced from ICE and analyzed by The Colorado Sun and WyoFile as part of a project led by the University of California, Berkeley School of Law, provides an unprecedented look into the profiles of detainees caught in ICE’s wide-ranging arrest tactics over the past year. The data paints a detailed picture of arrests made under the jurisdiction of ICE’s Denver field office, which oversees both Colorado and Wyoming.
This data counters the stated aims of the Trump administration to focus on deporting the ‘worst of the worst.’ Rather, the statistics show that ICE is now increasingly targeting individuals without any criminal backgrounds. Advocates who support immigrant communities have expressed shock at these tactics, especially the practice of arresting individuals who are present for their immigration court hearings, a scenario they claim is unprecedented.
Laura Lunn, the director of advocacy and litigation at Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network, noted that in her 15 years within the immigrant advocacy realm, she has never seen individuals with pending asylum cases being taken into custody without any criminal history until now.
‘People are being picked up from their homes, workplaces, or even while walking their dogs,’ she stated. ‘This is ruthless, and I have never seen anything like it before.’
While the arrest dataset is not perfect, the analysis conducted by The Colorado Sun and WyoFile found a total of 2,162 arrests processed in 2025 and 556 from the year 2024, discarding fewer than 100 arrests due to uncertainty in the data. There were instances where some arrests had a criminal record in one dataset but did not appear in another, which led to a cumulative assessment stressing the reliability of the arrest data.
Some discrepancies were noted when compared to other news outlets, as The New York Times reported the increases in Wyoming arrests as merely doubling rather than tripling, with The Colorado Sun and WyoFile highlighting a greater number of arrests specific to that state.
ICE officials declined to comment on their arrest data or engage with inquiries from the press. Questions directed to Steve Kotecki, ICE’s spokesperson for the two-state area, were redirected to the agency’s national media office, which provided a generic response declining to authenticate its own data.
This lack of transparency illustrates ICE’s trend toward obscuring the identities of its officials and diminishing public engagement. The agency has employed tactics including agents wearing masks during operations, and have refrained from sharing their names even with the individuals they detain.
This surge in arrests, particularly targeting individuals without a prior criminal history, comes amidst the administration striving to meet its goal of conducting 3,000 immigration arrests per day. This aggressive approach has sparked various protests across the nation, including in Colorado and Wyoming.
Colorado and Wyoming stand in stark contrast politically and demographically. The state of Colorado is governed by a Democratic administration, while Wyoming is overseen by Republican officials. According to recent U.S. census data, nearly 10% of Colorado’s population are foreign-born, compared to only 3.6% in Wyoming.
The data indicates that the immigration enforcement in Colorado is more intense compared to Wyoming, where the arrests appear to rely primarily on cooperation between local law enforcement and ICE. Arrests in Wyoming seem to follow a model where local police alert ICE about detentions of immigrants suspected of local criminal activity, leading to less visible ICE operations.
As more Wyoming sheriffs sign agreements to cooperate with ICE, this collaborative effort could conflict with Colorado laws that limit such coordination. Activists have reported that even in Wyoming counties lacking formal agreements, there is a growing reliance on ICE when deputies detain suspected undocumented immigrants.
Bianca Infante, the program director of the Juntos organization in Cheyenne, remarked on the increasing visibility of arrests despite being less ostentatious than seen elsewhere. ‘They’re here,’ she stated. ‘The way they’re acting is more strategic, it’s less visible. But just because we’re not seeing it as much doesn’t mean that they’re not here.’
Analysis of the arrest data reveals that, during the early months of Trump’s presidency, most detainees had no prior criminal convictions, a significant shift from the same period in 2024 when most have been documented as having criminal records.
Of those arrested this year with previous convictions, many were classified as nonviolent offenses according to the FBI’s criteria. Among those taken into custody were individuals with convictions dating back decades, although complete dates were not always included, with three arrests linked to convictions from 1992 to 1999.
Notably, the data suggests few of those arrested were sent back to countries where they lacked citizenship. However, nine Venezuelan men were deported to El Salvador from Colorado on March 15, and records indicate at least three other Venezuelan men were simultaneously deported under the Biden administration.
While identities remain protected in this data, the timing suggests these men may have been among nearly 300 individuals deported to El Salvador under the Trump administration without the chance to contest claims of gang affiliations against them.
Of the men arrested in Colorado, aged between 22 and 35, none held criminal records upon their arrest by ICE. However, one had an aggravated assault charge attached to his ICE detention file, reflecting ongoing detention without the prospect of release.
In a significant turn of legislative actions, Republicans in Congress voted this month to boost ICE’s budget from $8 billion to about $28 billion, thereby allocating it as the country’s most funded law enforcement agency. Analysts highlight that this influx of resources will likely catalyze further arrests, detentions, and deportations, with a particular focus on individuals whose only offense may be crossing the border unlawfully.
Julia Gelatt, associated with the U.S. immigration policy program at the Migration Policy Institute, projected that with the accelerated pace of arrests, ICE may need to broaden its approach beyond merely focusing on individuals with prior criminal histories. ‘If they want to keep up the pace of arrests they’ve been conducting,’ she elaborated, ‘they’ll have to widen their gaze beyond people with criminal convictions.’
image source from：coloradosun
