ORLANDO, Fla — Immigrations and Customs Enforcement says it’s cracking down as President Donald Trump promises records arrests and deportations.
President Trump said throughout his campaign that he wanted to remove millions of people living in the U.S. illegally, and federal agents have been working toward that goal.
But, how many arrests have there been in Central Florida so far this year?
It’s a question 9 Investigates pressed federal officials for answers on for months as we’ve covered arrests of undocumented immigrants across Central Florida.
Luz Aurora Sanchez-Portillo stays busy with four children, all under the age of four. Her youngest is just three months old.
“They keep saying, ‘Why hasn’t Daddy come from work yet?’” Luz said, referring to what her kids repeatedly ask.
“They think he’s at work?” 9 Investigates asked.
“Yeah, they think that he’s still at work,” Luz said.
Luz can’t help but think of the celebrations her husband has already missed.
“Next month is our little baby girl’s birthday. What if he is not here to celebrate with us?,” Luz said.
In February, Ocala Police arrested her husband for petty theft. He’s accused of not scanning three items, amounting to roughly $60, at a Walmart self-checkout.
He was picked up by ICE before he ever had a trial.
“They only knew that ICE took him, but they didn’t know where,” Luz said.
“How long did it take you to find out where your husband was?,” 9 Investigates asked.
“Almost a week. I knew they took him on Saturday,” Luz said. “It was Thursday at night when he called me and told me that he just got there to Texas in detention.”
ICE has released some arrest numbers from individual operations.
But for months, 9 Investigates has asked ICE in records requests and inquiries about how many people they’ve arrested specifically in Florida and how many they’ve deported.
“They’re taking so many, so many people, and there’s not a lot of information about it. They don’t say why they’re doing it, why they are taking the people,” Luz said.
ICE’s website typically shows arrests over time, whether those arrested were ever previously convicted of a crime, and where those arrests happened.
However, despite the site saying it will be updated quarterly, the administration hasn’t published any data on the site since President Trump took office in January.
“It’s very concerning, and it just fits this overall trend of them seeming to not want to provide information in terms of what they have going on,” said Jack McGuire with the Florida Immigrant Coalition. “It provides a lot of problems for us because we’re trying to help out with community. We’re trying figure out how can we support people,” McGuire said.
Concern over ICE’s transparency looms as questions remain whether the agency is meeting President Trump’s initial quota for 1,200 to 1,500 arrests each day.
“Is that even possible?,” 9 Investigates asked.
“Well, this kind of goes back to possibly why they’re not reporting the numbers,” McGuire said. “They’re still operating with the same infrastructure, the same resources that they’ve had over the last several years.”
wasn’t
“We work with the white house every day. We update them on the numbers every single day,” Sheahan said.
Sheahan wouldn’t say why the number of arrests wasn’t updated on the public website and didn’t answer whether the agency is meeting its quota.
“We have zero tolerance for criminal aliens to be in this country, and we’re making sure that we’re counting every arrest is accurate as possible. We’re not doing catch-and-release that you saw from the Biden administration, which shows a lot of skewed numbers,” Sheahan said.
“She touted 65,000 arrests in the Trump administration’s first 100 days. It’s about 650 arrests a day, far below the quota.
“It’s about accountability. It’s about making sure that, you know, as the American public deserves, it’s like we deserve to know what you’re saying if it is or isn’t true,” McGuire said.
McGuire says transparency about why people are getting arrested is also important.
“When we’re talking about people who are getting labeled as gang members and then getting sent to a prison in El Salvador possibly to stay there for the rest of their lives… are these people you’re sending there, really the people that you’re saying?,” McGuire said.
To get an idea of how many people ICE has picked up or will soon pick up in Central Florida, we requested the number of individuals ICE has placed holds on. This may be the only public record available while we await answers from ICE.
9 Investigates has found that, so far this year, ICE has placed over 1,700 people in our Central Florida jails on hold.
Almost all of our Central Florida jails saw a greater number of people placed on ICE detainers in the first four months of this year compared to all of last year.
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