Immigration enforcement intensified across California in 2025, with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) sharply increasing deportations and arrests, according to government data released through a public records request.
Under President Donald Trump’s second term, ICE deported at least 8,250 people from California during the first nine months of 2025, with deportations increasing as the year progressed, according to government data provided by ICE in response to a FOIA request to the Deportation Data Project and analyzed by the Sacramento Bee.
The figures are based on ICE records obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request by the Deportation Data Project and processed by a UC Berkeley Law School initiative.
The removal figure closely mirrors the total number of deportations reported during the early months of President Trump’s second term, according to the data analysis.
From July through September 2025, ICE averaged nearly 1,520 deportations per month, which is an increase of more than 200% compared to the first three months of the year. At that pace, the agency was on track to deport roughly 13,000 people from California by year’s end.
In 2024, ICE deported nearly 4,000 people from California.
However, the figures are lower than the actual deportation figures from the state as the data only provides information about ICE removals and lacks data from removals conducted by other federal agencies, such as the U.S. Customs and Border Protection that carried out deportations, especially during large-scale operations at worksites like Home Depot parking lots, car washes, and other businesses.
The ICE removal figures were calculated by filtering California cases with a U.S. departure date in 2025 and are based on the most recent dataset released in October, according to the analysis.
ICE Arrests Surge in California
ICE arrests in California saw a dramatic spike in 2025.
While ICE arrested 687 individuals in California in January 2025, the figure nearly doubled by May, coinciding with Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and Homeland Security Adviser Stephen Miller directing immigration officers to increase arrest quotas.
Over the next four months, ICE averaged nearly 3,125 arrests per month in California, according to the data analysis. In contrast, ICE made around 5,620 arrests throughout 2024 across the state.
Citing federal data, the report said that 43% of those arrested in California had been convicted of a crime. Another 14% had pending criminal charges. The remaining 44% were arrested for only immigration violations.
While immigration officials spent months targeting worksites and street vendors in Los Angeles, in the Central Valley and Bay Area, large-scale operations were less common. However, targeted arrests repeatedly occurred at courthouses, ICE-check-ins, and federal immigration service offices.
Self-deportations also significantly increased in President Trump’s second term. The 117 voluntary removals in California in the first five months in 2025 were higher than the total from the previous 16 months.
Anti-ICE Protests in Santa Barbara
The dramatic surge in immigration enforcement has prompted public backlash and protest movements in Santa Barbara.
More than 2,000 residents gathered on State Street in Santa Barbara on January 10, 2026, for the ‘ICE Out for Good’ protest, calling for an end to ICE enforcement practices and mourning the death of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good, who was fatally shot during a law enforcement operation in Minnesota on January 7.
Stating that ICE had kidnapped 1,430 community members across Ventura, San Luis Obispo, and Santa Barbara counties, 805 UndocuFund is organizing outreach, rapid response training, and community patrols in Santa Barbara, Santa Maria, Cal Poly, and Carpinteria.
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Donald Trump is morally bankrupt – and so is ANYONE who supports his evil.
One of the truly amazing things about any discussion on ICE and its militarization of our cities is that the supporters of ICE go on and on about how undocumented workers are “All criminals!” and calling for “law and order!” And then you ask them who they voted for.
They voted for a man convicted of multiple felonies, who brags about sexually assaulting women, who has used his position to enrich his family with multiple grifts and schemes and who has upended the order of the nation and the world with his constant need for unchecked power.