Hundreds arrested in Indiana during recent five-day ICE crackdown
ICE arrests nationwide totaled more than 49,000 in July, the highest single-month tally during the second term of President Donald Trump.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested more than 400 undocumented immigrants in Indiana during a five-day operation in late August and early September, the agency announced this week.
Most of the arrests occurred in Indianapolis, the state’s capital city and population center.
The agency didn’t specify how many of the 426 immigrants detained in Operation Safe Community-Indiana have a criminal history. But it said some had records including sex crimes, assault, domestic violence, and drug trafficking.
The arrests were part of a summer surge of ICE enforcement that has drawn less public attention than the mass deployments of agents to Minneapolis and other cities early this year. ICE arrests nationwide totaled more than 49,000 in July, the highest single-month tally during the second term of President Donald Trump. More than half of the people arrested did not have a criminal record.
ICE applauded unnamed local police partners in the Hoosier State for cooperating with the recent crackdown. Gov. Mike Braun, a Republican, last year signed an executive order encouraging local law enforcement agencies to partner with ICE and assist in immigration arrests and requiring state law enforcement agencies to do so. As of early September, 39 Indiana departments had signed on to ICE cooperation agreements, according to the Indianapolis Star.
“This is what it looks like when ICE has a blank check to do enforcement,” said Lisa Koop, the Indiana-based director of legal services at the National Immigrant Justice Center. “It’s just devastating for communities.”
Also in 2025, the state agreed to a Department of Homeland Security request to add about 1,000 beds for immigrant detainees at the Miami Correctional Facility, a state prison about 60 miles north of Indianapolis. In a statement, then-DHS Secretary Kristi L. Noem dubbed the facility the “Speedway Slammer.”
Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett, a Democrat, denounced the recent ICE arrests, saying in a statement that his office got no advance notice of increased enforcement activity and pledging support for immigrant communities.
“Our city prides itself on being a welcoming community and firmly recognizes the invaluable contributions of all our neighbors,” he said.
Many undocumented immigrants who are arrested face detention and eventual deportation, although some are able to fight it in U.S. immigration courts.
A report published this week by Minnesota Public Radio showed that a large majority of the undocumented immigrants arrested in that state earlier this year ended up removed from the country.
That crackdown, known as Operation Metro Surge, sparked a huge public backlash, along with widespread outrage at the deaths of two U.S. citizens who were protesting ICE actions.
More than 3,700 immigrants were arrested, and at least 2,300 ended up deported or out of the country, according to an analysis of data from the Deportation Data Project, a group of academics and lawyers that obtained the material though a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.
