New, widely-cited federal data points to a dramatic spike in Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests in Vermont during the summer, mirroring a national trend.
But that picture of ICE activity in Vermont appears to be misleading, according to a Vermont Public analysis of the same data.
Figures obtained by the Deportation Data Project at the University of California, Berkeley and UCLA — and cited by outlets such as the New York Times — suggest that ICE agents in Vermont scaled up their enforcement operations in the spring and summer. The agency logged 124 arrests in Vermont through July, more than triple those carried out during all of 2025. The New York Times has repeatedly highlighted the Vermont enforcement jump as one of the steepest in the nation.
A closer look at the data, however, reveals that many of the people included in the ICE data were actually apprehended by U.S. Customs and Border Protection while trying to sneak across the Canadian border and later transferred to ICE custody for deportation.
In those cases, their arrest is being counted twice — once when Border Patrol agents apprehend them, and again when ICE agents later assume custody.
In other words: Their arrests had nothing to do with the sort of interior enforcement that the Trump administration is trying to bolster and which critics have denounced.
Vermont Public identified more than 50 arrestees in the ICE data whose case details closely match those of border-crossers apprehended by Border Patrol agents as documented in court records and U.S. Customs and Border Protection data.
In a June press release, for instance, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Vermont touted its prosecution of a Senegalese woman born in 2002. Court records show that Border Patrol agents arrested the woman, along with a mother and four children, on June 20, several hours after they walked across the border near Highgate. Federal prosecutors charged the woman with illegally entering the country, a misdemeanor. She appeared in federal court in Burlington on June 24, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to time served.
That same day, ICE records show that the agency took custody in Burlington of a Senegalese woman born in 2002.
This double-counting of some Border Patrol apprehensions as ICE arrests in Vermont appears to have begun sometime this year. It’s unclear why. Vermont Public did not find obvious signs of a similar data issue in other border states.
An agency spokesperson declined to comment except to say that ICE does not review, audit or give “context” to the data it has released to the Deportation Data Project in response to public records litigation.
ICE has published separate data that indicates Border Patrol agents made the initial arrest in roughly 10% of its cases nationwide during the current fiscal year.
What the data does show
The lion’s share of ICE arrests in Vermont through July involved people who were in some form of law enforcement custody before ICE agents got involved — which, in most cases, appears to be U.S. Customs and Border Protection. (While the agencies can sometimes become conflated in public discourse, ICE and Customs and Border Protection have distinct roles.)
The agency also conducted 29 “at-large” arrests during that seven-month period, including the controversial March 11 detentions of three immigrants at their home in South Burlington.
ICE arrested 35 people this way in 2025.
So ICE does appear to be on track to increase its interior arrests in Vermont this year, even if not as dramatically as the federal data suggests.
The agency employs a small crew of removal officers in the state. But their efforts are supplemented by ICE agents from nearby states and those from Homeland Security Investigations and Border Patrol, who also have legal authority to conduct immigration enforcement beyond the border.
Together, federal agents have arrested immigrants at job sites, at their homes and through traffic stops. Many do not have criminal records, and some were arrested because of a chance encounter, rather than a targeted operation.
ICE has made a spate of arrests involving migrant workers since the latest ICE data was compiled. Seven Days identified at least 12 construction workers who were detained by ICE agents during enforcement actions in August and early September.
That would mark one of ICE agents’ most active periods of interior enforcement here in recent years, the data shows.
In one of those cases, an agent noticed a group of roofers working on a Cornwall residence, pulled over and arrested two of them, the newspaper reported.
A relative told Seven Days that the men had immigrated from Ecuador in 2024 in pursuit of a better life.
