CBP is as responsible as ICE for the increase of arrests: Historically, the majority of immigration arrests in the United States have been carried out by Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the largest law enforcement agency in the country. For decades, CBP, which includes Border Patrol, has been most active in border communities. Under the current administration, CBP has expanded its reach into the interior as part of the “borderfication” of the country, exporting the harsh tactics developed in border communities to communities across the country.
➤ Border-based advocates have decades-long experience challenging these tactics and wide-ranging expertise that can inform state and national strategies to respond to the “borderfication” of the country.
With the surge of federal resources in 2025, arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are on the rise in the US. In the latest month of available data (Feb. 2026), ICE constituted slightly more than half of all arrests as a percentage of the national total. Nonetheless, CBP carries out almost half of the arrests.
➤ The data confirms what border communities already know — any reform efforts to challenge harmful immigration enforcement must address both CBP & ICE to be effective, especially as the agencies increasingly engage in joint operations and become more difficult to distinguish.
CBP & ICE Arrested Almost 900 People a Day in the Southern Border in February 2026: In the latest full month of available data for both agencies (Feb. 2026), ICE and CBP arrested almost 60,000 people nationally (about 2,000 per day). In the Southern Border states (California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas), they arrested more than 25,000 people that month (almost 900 people per day, which is 44% of national arrests). With the administration recently increasing its national arrest quota from 2,000 to 3,000 people per day, Southern Border communities are anticipating even harsher enforcement.
Border States are the Hardest Hit by Immigration Enforcement: Border communities have always been the focus of activity for CBP enforcement that includes Border Patrol. That means checkpoints on our roads, roving patrols in our neighborhoods, and entry onto private property. All of these activities are possible through excessive search powers granted by Congress decades ago to immigration officers in 8 USC §1357(a). Border communities have long challenged these powers, which are now being used across the country in boundary states and around international airports.
➤ Until Congress removes these powers, we will bear the consequences regardless of who is in leadership. It will just be a matter of scale. This makes investments in long-term change crucial.
For the latest month of data available (Feb. 2026), all ten states with the highest numbers of immigration arrests were border states with land or maritime boundaries. All four Southern Border states rank among the top ten states with the most arrests.
The Southern Border region must now navigate the growing presence of ICE and CBP officers, who together were already the largest law enforcement presence in the region. These agencies are also the most violent and least accountable in the country. As a result of excessive power and entrenched culture of impunity, 380 people have died as a result of an encounter with Customs and Border Protection agents since 2010 and ICE agents since 2025.
➤ Organizations along the Southern Border are not only on the front lines of the deadly and unaccountable immigration enforcement— they are uniquely positioned to lead the way forward in responding to it.