This story was first published at Colorado Newsline.
DENVER | Data shows over 3,000 arrests made by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Colorado through mid-October this year, as the Trump administration and federal government ramp up detention and deportation efforts.
That’s over four times the number of arrests from the same time period in the last year of the Biden administration.
Newsline analyzed data available through the Deportation Data Project, which obtains data from the federal government through Freedom of Information Act requests and posts them online. The data includes information about arrests and detentions in Colorado until Oct. 15 this year.
The rate of immigration enforcement arrests sharply increased when President Donald Trump took office in late January, compared to trends in 2024. There were 734 arrests in Colorado between Jan. 1 and Oct. 15, 2025, compared to 3,230 arrests between the same time period in 2025.
In his second term, Trump has pledged to carry out the “largest deportation operation in the history of our country,” aiming to remove all of the estimated 12 million immigrants in the country without permanent legal status, regardless of how long they have been in the country, the legal status of their family members or whether they have criminal records.
The year saw high-profile ICE operations in major cities across the county, billions of dollars in new funding for the agency and pressure from top government officials to meet a daily arrest quota.
Last year in Colorado, the daily arrest average rarely exceeded 10 per day, but there were several time periods in 2025 with much higher daily arrest numbers. That includes highly-publicized operations by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement at Aurora and Denver apartment buildings in early February and a raid at a Colorado Springs nightclub in April.
Monique Sherman, the Detention Program Managing Attorney at the Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network, said that the data matches her expectations, and that a much larger share of detained people she saw this year were apprehended internally — at work, home or during a traffic stop — rather than at the border. That was the experience of about 88% of people the organization worked with in 2025, compared to an estimate of less than 10% in 2024.
Historically, people would move from a border facility to the Aurora facility while their removal proceedings moved through the system, Sherman said.
“Now, we barely interact with anyone who came from the border. In 2025, we saw 52 people who came straight from the border out of 430,” she said. “It’s a huge flip, and it makes sense considering the various policies of the administration.”
Most of the people arrested by ICE in Colorado this year did not have a criminal conviction. Twenty-six percent had a pending criminal charge, and 36% were arrested on an immigration violation and did not have a criminal record. That tracks with a national trend, where arrests are up but the share of criminal convictions is down
ICE often publicized the criminality of people it arrested through news releases, including in a July release in which the agency claimed it arrested people who “pose a significant threat to public safety,” including one person wanted for murder, five people wanted for a sex offense and nine people with a drug offense charge.
The most common “most serious charge” designation for immigrants detained in Colorado in 2025 was for driving under the influence. That data comes from an analysis of information from the Deportation Data Project about people detained in the privately-run ICE detention center in Aurora and in ICE hold rooms in Denver, Colorado Springs, Puebelo, Alamosa, Frederick, Craig, Grand Junction and Durango. ICE inputs the information, but the terminology can be inconsistent. There were 12 entries for “drug possession” but also eight entries for “heroin.” Newsline combined any drug-related entry to count towards a drug offense category for its analysis.
The next most common charges were for assault, drug offenses, traffic offenses and illegal reentry into the country. There were 16 people detained by ICE who had a homicide charge and 52 people with a sex offense charge.
Denver County had the highest number of arrests at 1,548 during the time analyzed. The next highest counties, in order, were El Paso, Arapahoe, Mesa, Adams and Pueblo. There are gaps in the released data and media reports of ICE arrests, such as in Summit County. Only two arrests were listed in the data, but organizations like Voces Unidas told media that at least ten people were detained during a September operation in Frisco and Dillon.
There were 293 arrests listed as taking place in “FRD General Area,” which the Deportation Data Project believes refers to the region surrounding an ICE field office or sub-field office. FRD would be code for the Frederick sub-field office, which covers Broomfield, Boulder, Larimer, Weld, Morgan, Logan, Washington, Yuma, Phillips, Sedgwick, Kit Carson and Cheyenne counties.
The reporting could and should have said that a majority of people detained, about 70%, have been charged and/or convicted of a serious crime.
Any way you cut it, this president sees criminals when he sees dark skin! He constantly takes one example and smears an entire race or people from a dark-skinned area or country! Notably, when another of the many white guys grabs an AR-15 and masacres a bunch of kids at a school, he draws no conclusions about whites, instead he insists that the individual had mental issues, like the rest of the GOP does. Now, we were sold a bag of crap about him getting rid of the worst of the worst. If most of the detained have no criminal record, they hold jobs, enroll in our military at high rates, and pay taxes, why the heck are we deporting them? Gotta start asking that question! When I lived in Houston the new homes were erected, painted, and roofed in 98° weather by mainly immigrants! Immigrants mowed lawns, were housekeepers and custodians, worked as cooks, waiters, and dishwashers. Don’t tell me they are taking regular American jobs. I once managed a custodial crew. The hardest and most reliable workers were migrants. When I hired whites, many would quickly move on to better paying jobs. Often they left with no notice. I had few laggards, but as in any field, I had a few. Most of these laggards were born American citizens. Some thought the work and pay was beneath them. Realistically, we have to ask ourselves, how many of us would pick fruit or vegetables or perform the jobs above. I was an economics major with an MBA. We were taught that frictional unemployment was roughly 4 to 5%. That is 4 to 5% of workers were frictionally unemployed, while they transistioned to a new job. If that is true, we need immigrants to do these jobs. Otherwise fruits and vegetables will rot in the field and turnover rates in other low-wage jobs will affect quality and cleanliness! Let’s think about what he is doing and how and why he is doing it!
“He constantly takes one example and smears an entire race or people from a dark-skinned area or country!”
Kind of like your side has done with white people for the last 50-plus years, because we know how much you hate them.
The numbers aree for no one with criminal acts of convictions, so this could mean anybody could fall into these numbers, especially if they you are dark skinned
“The hardest and most reliable workers were migrants. When I hired whites, many would quickly move on to better paying jobs. Often they left with no notice. ”
What an admission–“I need mass immigrant peon labor because white people expect to be paid a decent wage!”