Since immigration enforcement ramped up during President Donald Trump's second term, Florida has been one of the states feeling the brunt of the crackdown.
Arrests in the state more than tripled, according to government data obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests by the Deportation Data Project.
In 2025, law enforcement made nearly 77 immigration-related arrests per day. A year earlier, the average was about 20 per day.
Immigration-related arrests in Florida came in at 20,629 between Jan. 20, 2025 and Oct. 15, 2025.
That's about 10% of such arrests in the country. And, it puts Florida second only to Texas, which had nearly a quarter of all immigration arrests.
About 2,922 of the arrests were made in the Tampa Bay region.
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For the last year, WUSF has documented the growing intensity of immigration enforcement through personal stories and data.
A Cuban woman in Tampa was in the process of applying for her green card when she was detained and deported, leaving behind her husband and 1-year-old daughter.
The detention of a 22-year-old from Sarasota began with a traffic stop and ended with her self-deportation to Mexico. Her detainment was one of many facilitated by local law enforcement agencies that entered 287(g) agreements with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
A Venezuelan asylum seeker from Tampa was accused of being a gang member and sent to El Salvador's maximum security prison along with more than 200 others. Since his release to Venezuela, he says he's been haunted by memories of abuse and is fighting to return to his family in the U.S.
These stories give a glimpse behind the numbers.
The latest batch of data shows ICE continues to arrest those with no criminal background. About a quarter had no criminal record besides an immigration offense.
Those arrested in Florida include people from more than 120 countries. And their ages range from 1cto 89. About 140 minors — people under 18 — were arrested.
The following visualizations mirror those of KPBS, San Diego's public radio station, which broke down their regional data in three charts.
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