Immigration enforcement expanded sharply across New England during President Donald Trump’s second term, with thousands of immigrants arrested, detained, and deported in operations that reached both major cities and small towns. Federal data analyzed by independent researchers and reported by regional news outlets shows that New England experienced one of its most aggressive interior immigration enforcement periods in recent years.
The scale of enforcement marks a significant departure from prior years and has reshaped daily life for immigrant communities across the six New England states.
A Region-Wide Increase in Arrests and Deportations
The most comprehensive regional data comes from the Boston Area of Responsibility (AOR), the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) jurisdiction covering Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine.
According to ICE data analyzed by the Deportation Data Project and reported by Vermont Public, ICE conducted approximately 8,848 arrests and carried out 9,987 deportations across New England between January 20 and December 2025. The same reporting notes that this represents a dramatic increase compared with the previous year, when both arrests and removals were far lower across the region
Notably, deportations slightly exceeded arrests, indicating that once individuals entered ICE custody, removals were carried out more rapidly than in prior years.
Massachusetts Emerges as the Center of Enforcement
Massachusetts accounted for a substantial share of New England’s enforcement activity.
Between January and late July 2025, ICE arrested nearly 2,800 immigrants in Massachusetts alone, which found that Brazilian, Haitian, and Central American communities were among those most affected in Greater Boston.
Enforcement intensified further in the fall. In September 2025, ICE announced 1,406 arrests during a statewide enforcement surge known as “Operation Patriot 2.0,” one of the most significant single immigration operations conducted in Massachusetts during Trump’s second term.
Local news organizations documented arrests taking place in neighborhoods, workplaces, and courthouses, raising concerns among immigrant advocates that enforcement was increasingly targeting people without serious criminal convictions.
Smaller States Feel Outsized Effects
While overall arrest numbers were lower in other New England states, the impact was significant relative to each state’s population.
In Vermont, more than 100 immigrants were arrested or detained by ICE during 2025, an unusually high figure for a state with a small immigrant population, according to year-end reporting by Vermont Public.
In Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Maine, local outlets reported dozens to hundreds of arrests linked to coordinated regional operations managed through the Boston ICE office, reflecting a broader enforcement strategy rather than isolated incidents.
Advocacy groups across the region warned that even limited enforcement actions in smaller states can have outsized ripple effects, discouraging immigrants from attending work, school, court hearings, or medical appointments.
Detention Capacity Expands Alongside Arrests
Detention data is less transparent at the state level, but Massachusetts provides a clear example of how arrests translated into prolonged custody.
At Plymouth County Correctional Facility, which contracts with ICE, 526 beds were allocated for immigration detention, with an average daily population of approximately 414 detainees throughout 2025, according to a WBUR analysis of federal detention records.
WBUR further reported that about 85 percent of detainees held at Plymouth were classified by ICE as posing “no ICE threat,” challenging public claims that enforcement focused primarily on individuals with serious criminal histories.
Deportations Reach Levels Not Seen in Years
The sharpest increase occurred in deportations. Using Boston AOR data, nearly 10,000 people were deported from New England between January and December 2025, compared with fewer than 1,000 during the same period the year before, according to Vermont Public’s analysis of ICE removals.
The numbers suggest that Trump’s second-term immigration strategy emphasized speed and volume of removals, not merely arrests.
What the Data Reveals—and What It Obscures
The available data makes one trend clear: immigration enforcement expanded rapidly and deeply across New England in 2025, reaching urban centers and rural states alike.
What remains unclear is the full human toll. ICE does not release comprehensive, real-time state-level detention data, making it difficult to determine how long individuals remained in custody or how many families were separated as a result of enforcement actions.
A Region at the Center of Immigration Enforcement
For immigrant communities across New England, the numbers represent more than statistics. They translate into families separated, workers detained, and communities living under persistent uncertainty.
As federal immigration policy continues to evolve, the data from 2025 underscores a new reality: New England is no longer on the periphery of immigration enforcement—it is at its center.
Abdullahi Hussein is a community journalist focused on uplifting immigrant voices and local stories in Boston. He is also our director of editorial and development.
