New York City
ICE Hits 40,000 Arrests In New York And New Jersey, Unlocking Its Next Reward Tier
By BSN Staff, . BSN Network. Satire.
Federal immigration authorities have arrested nearly 40,000 people across New York and New Jersey since January 2025, a pace that doubles the Biden administration's equivalent stretch and that the Department of Homeland Security has declined to describe as a streak, a quota, or a game, despite the numbers suggesting otherwise.
The milestone figure was confirmed by data compiled from ICE enforcement records, which catalogue arrests by borough, county, zip code and, in at least one memorable instance, the lobby of 26 Federal Plaza in Lower Manhattan, a building that also houses the USCIS field office, a Social Security Administration branch, and, according to its own Google listing, operating hours of 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday.
Tom Homan, the administration's border czar, called the pace a sign of restored order. "We are not running a program," Homan told reporters. "We are running a commitment. A promise to the American people. A very high-volume, geographically distributed, operationally sustained promise."
He did not elaborate on what the American people are supposed to do once the promise clears 80,000.
The comparison to Biden's numbers has become a point of pride inside DHS, where officials have taken to describing the previous administration's enforcement posture as, quote, "a light jog." The current posture has been described, by the same officials, as also a jog, only faster, in the same direction, on the same roads, using the same legal authority, which is a distinction the administration considers significant.
Critics have noted that the operational template, the courtroom pipelines, the detention contracts, the field office jurisdictions, and the paperwork, was largely inherited. A senior DHS spokesperson said that was "not a relevant framing" and then described the operation as "historic" four more times before the call disconnected.
In New York City, where Mayor Eric Adams has maintained a posture best described as loud neutrality, arrests have been concentrated in Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island, with significant activity in Hudson County, New Jersey, which ICE has visited so frequently that two local diners have reportedly added a laminated copy of the Fourth Amendment to their menus, next to the specials.
The 26 Federal Plaza arrest, conducted in June during what an official press release called an "enforcement removal operation," took place in a building where immigrants routinely appear for scheduled appointments with the same government that was, on that particular morning, also arresting people in the lobby. ICE called this efficient. Defense attorneys called it something else.
At 40,000, the administration has not announced a prize. At 50,000, sources say, there may be a press conference.
At 80,000, presumably, a gala.
The story we are making fun of: https://gothamist.com/news/nearly-40k-and-counting-heres-where-ice-arrested-immigrants-across-ny-and-nj