Federal officials have deported more than 3 out of 4 people arrested by Kentucky-based ICE operations during President Donald Trump's second term, according to recently released data detailing years of ICE activity.
The data illustrates the scope of Trump's deportation push in Kentucky. ICE provided the data in response to a FOIA request to the Deportation Data Project. KyCIR then analyzed the data and found that between Trump's inauguration day and March 10, 2026, ICE agents made about 3,500 arrests linked to ICE sub-offices in Louisville and Bowling Green.
The number of arrests in the first 14 months of Trump's second term nearly equals the number of Kentucky-based ICE arrests during the final two years and three months of President Joe Biden's term, according to the data.
And the rate of people being deported has skyrocketed.
In the second half of Biden's term, 42% of the more than 3,600 Kentucky-based ICE arrests ultimately resulted in a deportation. Since Trump's second term began, 78% of the arrests led to deportation, the data show.
Though media outlets and advocacy groups nationwide use the information obtained by the Deportation Data Project to detail how immigration enforcement is impacting communities, ICE officials say the data – which the agency itself provides to the Deportation Data Project – is not accurate.
"The Deportation Data Project relies on information releases that have not been reviewed, audited or given context," an unidentified ICE spokesperson said via email. "DHS [U.S. Department of Homeland Security] nor ICE have verified the accuracy, methodology or the analysis of the project and its results. The bottom line is that the Deportation Data Project is not accurate."
While Kentucky hasn't become a hotbed of ICE raids and mass enforcement initiatives, KyCIR's findings reflect what local immigration attorneys say they've seen since Trump became president for the second time. They told KyCIR that it's clear Trump's objective to deport millions of people is having a local impact.
Duffy Trager, an immigration lawyer in Louisville, said the federal immigration enforcement landscape is "dramatically different" than in years past.
In Louisville, Trager said he's often heard from people who got arrested when they went to appointments required as part of their federal immigration cases.
He said he's also getting calls from mothers raising children here in the U.S. who have no criminal history.
"I'm sensing that they're kind of doing what they can to hit numbers and that's what it's about," he said.
Sylvia Quaye, another local immigration attorney, told KyCIR she's known ICE to arrest people as they take their kids to school, or to show up at a person's job.
"It's gone from bad to worse," she said. "It's gone from the frying pan to the fire."
What data reveals about ICE action in Kentucky
The federal data KyCIR analyzed details Kentucky-based administrative arrests made by ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations, the division that manages the arrest and deportation of immigrants. These arrests involve detaining someone for alleged civil violations of U.S. immigration law.
The data lists two ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations sub-offices in Kentucky: Louisville and Bowling Green. More than 8 out of 10 arrests KyCIR reviewed under both Trump and Biden tied to these offices were made in Kentucky. Nearly 450 of the arrests occurred in other states, including Indiana, Illinois, Pennsylvania and more.
We also examined the small number of arrests in Kentucky that were linked to other ICE units. About 15% of the arrests listed in the nationwide database do not detail the state in which it occurred.
For most of Trump's current term, the Louisville and Bowling Green ICE offices are associated with more than 250 arrests per month. Under Biden, there were only three months in his final two years in which Kentucky-based arrests topped 200.
The data shows ICE units based outside of Kentucky in Chicago, Cincinnati, Indianapolis and elsewhere also were tied to 25 arrests in the commonwealth under Trump.
Under Biden, outside ICE units were linked to 16 arrests in Kentucky.
More than half of the people arrested under Trump had been convicted of at least one crime, the data on Kentucky shows. The dataset does not specify the crime.
More than a third of those arrested had at least one pending criminal charge.
And 8% of the Kentucky-based arrests under Trump were of people with no criminal history. They faced only accusations of civil violations of U.S. immigration law.
Here's how that compares to the Kentucky-based ICE arrests under roughly 27 months of Biden's tenure:
- 46% of the arrests involved people convicted of at least one crime.
- 16% of the arrests were of people with a pending criminal charge.
- 38% had no criminal history and only faced allegations of civil immigration law violations.
More than 90% of the Kentucky-based arrests under Trump involving people with a pending criminal charge or a criminal conviction fits with another finding: At least three-quarters of all the Kentucky-based arrests under Trump qualify as "custodial" arrests, meaning the person was transferred to ICE custody from a jail or prison where they were initially incarcerated for a different reason.
Meanwhile, at least 22% of the arrests were considered street arrests that happen out in the community.
Nationally, government records reported by various news outlets show thousands of the people detained by ICE under Trump either have no criminal record or, if they do, many of them are for non-violent crimes.
A substantial and growing body of research also shows immigrants generally commit crimes at lower rates than U.S.-born citizens do.
Quaye, the Louisville immigration attorney, said Trump's aggressive immigration policies often force people to make a choice.
She tells her clients facing immigration court that they can fight their deportation, which can be expensive and unpredictable. Or they can save the money they'd spend on legal expenses so their family member will have that to rely on once they're deported and have to rebuild their life.
"But sometimes the clients – they want to fight," she said. "Your life is immeasurable, you know, in dollars."
Copyright 2026 LPM News
