Since President Donald Trump returned to office, his campaign to deport thousands of immigrants has created headlines in Maryland after dispatching federal agents to sweep the streets, raiding worksites and, in one case, removing a mother from her vehicle.

Now, government records reveal the scale of these efforts: Arrests by U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officers have more than doubled in the state under Trump, a Baltimore Banner analysis of ICE data found.

Increasingly, according to the data analysis, the campaign has targeted immigrants without criminal charges or convictions.

This is despite Trump promising his mass deportation campaign would go after violent criminals, whom the president has called “the worst of the worst.” The data shows that since the president’s Jan. 20 inauguration, 60% of immigrants arrested in Maryland have never been convicted of crimes. Only 13% committed violent crimes.

After reviewing The Banner’s findings, Adina Appelbaum, program director at the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights, said the findings show the deportation campaign “is not about public safety.”

“It’s about systemic punishment, racial profiling and the dehumanizing political exploitation of our immigrant neighbors,” Appelbaum said.

ICE did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

The data The Banner analyzed was obtained through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by the Deportation Data Project, a group of lawyers and academics who worked with the UCLA Center for Immigration Law and Policy to make ICE’s data public. It includes arrests for civil violations of U.S. immigration laws by ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations division.

Since the data became available, Trump signed into law a massive tax and spending bill that allocates $45 billion for immigration detention centers and funds 10,000 new ICE agents — a sign that the blitz of arrests could be just beginning.

A surge in arrests

In Maryland, the effect of Trump’s efforts to institute the largest deportation operation in U.S. history has been dramatic: ICE arrests shot up from 29 per week last year to 76 per week under Trump, the analysis found.

The available data includes arrests through June 10, covering the first 142 days of Trump’s second term. Over that period, ICE arrested 1,553 people in Maryland, surpassing its total from all of 2024.

ICE activity ramped up starting in May, after deputy White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller ordered the agency to drive up arrests to 3,000 per week. During one week in June, ICE made 144 arrests in Maryland, or about 21 per day.

Baltimore Councilwoman Phylicia Porter called the rise in arrests “heartbreaking” and “a stark reminder of the human cost of aggressive immigration enforcement.”

“The surge in ICE arrests under Trump’s second term is not just a number,” Porter said. “It’s a growing crisis impacting thousands of lives across Maryland.”

Immigrants from three Central American countries — Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras — have made up the majority of those arrested in Maryland under Trump, mirroring trends observed under his predecessor, Joe Biden.

Under Trump, the number of weekly ICE arrests in Maryland rose 165% compared to 2024, outpacing the 122% rise nationwide.

Many of Maryland’s neighbors have experienced even steeper increases in ICE arrests. In Pennsylvania and West Virginia, weekly arrests have more than tripled under Trump. In Virginia, they have more than quadrupled.

Most immigrants arrested are not criminals

ICE data shows that under Trump, the majority of those arrested in Maryland — about 6 in 10 — have never been convicted of a crime. Roughly 4 in 10 have never been charged with a crime.

In the early weeks of Trump’s second term, the analysis found ICE focused its intensified deportation efforts on convicted criminals. Even as that began to change in mid-February, ICE was arresting people without criminal convictions or charges at roughly the same rate as in 2024, when Biden was president.

But the most recent weeks of available data show a dramatic shift: Since Miller raised arrest targets on May 21, 72% of those ICE apprehended in Maryland had never been convicted of a crime, and 58% had never been charged with a crime.

The data also shows a spike in community arrests compared to those in prisons and jails, further highlighting a shift toward noncriminal apprehensions.

Many Republicans, including U.S. Rep. Andy Harris, Maryland’s lone GOP member of Congress, have signaled their support for deporting all immigrants without legal status, regardless of their criminal backgrounds, arguing it’s necessary to uphold immigration laws and deter illegal entry.

But Adam Crandell, a local immigration attorney, said arresting people without criminal convictions “is an excellent way of terrorizing populations, but it is far from the most effective method of actually deporting people.” That’s because most without any criminal history will be eligible to be released on a bond and, in some cases, could qualify for a valid immigration status, he said.

Most criminals arrested are nonviolent

The analysis found a shift under Trump towards arresting more nonviolent offenders.

Just one-third of criminals ICE has arrested in Maryland since Trump returned to the White House committed violent offenses, such as assault, murder or robbery. Last year under Biden, nearly half of the criminals ICE arrested were violent offenders.

Under Trump, about 25% of convicted criminals arrested by ICE in Maryland had traffic offenses, such as driving under the influence, listed as their most serious crime. By comparison, about 14% of those arrested were convicted of homicide, robbery or sex crimes.

“The administration is not arresting only the worst,” said Ninfa Amador-Hernandez, policy manager for CASA, a national organization serving working-class Black, Latino, African-descendant, Indigenous and immigrant communities. “ICE agents are terrorizing communities in their mission to meet a quota of 3,000 arrests a day.”