Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents take a detainee outside a government building in California (French)
Afrasianet - Nearly two weeks before the Nov. 3 midterm elections, the immigration debate is no longer limited to border security and immigration numbers, but has moved into the heart of American cities and neighborhoods, and into a more sensitive question: How is the Trump administration carrying out the massive arrest and deportation campaign that has made it one of the pillars of his second term?
The campaign that helped Trump rally support in the 2024 election is beginning to raise reservations among segments of voters, especially independents and Latinos, while recent polls suggest that the dispute is no longer over the principle of tightening immigration laws as much as about the means used to enforce them.
A Fox News poll in September found that 53 percent of registered voters believe Trump's immigration campaign has "exceeded acceptable limits." The figure rises to 60 percent among independents and to nearly two-thirds among Hispanic voters.
From the border to the street
In the 2024 elections, border security was a central focus of the debate on immigration. Today, the focus of the debate has shifted to arrests at home, who is in their custody, and how they are carried out.
Among the families that have found themselves at the center of this controversy is the family of Cynthia Penaloza. Last August, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested her sister, Jocelyn Penaloza Magana, 23, during a traffic stop in Houston, Texas, and she remains in custody to this day.
Cynthia said the family has since lived in constant fear that Jocelyn would be deported to Mexico, or that the family would never be reunited.
The family rejects the Trump administration's characterization of its campaign as targeting the "worst of the worst." According to Jocelyn's family, she had no criminal record, was a top student, and arrived in the United States as a child at about five years old.
"The campaign targets criminals"
The Trump administration, on the other hand, insists that the expansion of arrests is linked to the fight against crime.
The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees immigration enforcement, said the president's policies had given Ace a free hand to go after what it called "the worst criminals of irregular immigrants," including murderers, sexual assaults, gang members and terrorists.
The figures show a significant increase in the frequency of arrests. In September, ICE reported two consecutive months of more than 50,000 arrests, surpassing the record set in June, when 43,900 people were arrested.
The Department of Homeland Security says about 70 percent of its detainees could be counted as having a criminal record or being charged with crimes if pending cases are counted.
But this same percentage has become disputed. Critics point out that an accusation does not equate to a conviction, and that many cases may end in acquittal or dismissal, and that some of these charges relate to non-violent crimes.
The Deportation Data Project's data presents a different picture: its analysis of government data suggests that about 70 percent of those currently detained by ICE do not have a criminal record.
Still, the administration does not appear to be slowing down the campaign. Tom Homan, the White House border chief, said last July, "We need more. We need more arrests and more deportations."
The 2024 balance begins to erode
This policy may now turn into a confusing issue for Republicans as they seek to maintain their majorities in both houses of Congress in the Nov. 3 election, as well as contest local and decisive races in a number of states.
Trump had made significant progress in the 2024 election among Latino voters, receiving about 48 percent of their votes, according to a Pew Research Center poll, a 12 percentage point increase over the 2020 election.
But Pew has since seen a clear decline. Among Latinos who voted for Trump in 2024, approval rating for him fell from 93% in early 2025 to 57% in early October, a shift that is beginning to reverberate within the Republican Party itself.
Florida Republican Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar addressed the president directly in a campaign ad last September, saying, "Mr. President, some of your immigration enforcement actions have gone too far," citing the number of migrants who have been arrested despite no criminal records.
"Cleaning up the mess is dirty work"
But other Republican voices argue that the harshness of the scene is not evidence of policy error, but an inevitable consequence of what they describe as the legacy of previous administrations.
"This is a mess that has been made and cleaned up is a dirty job," said Republican Jeremy Price of Texas, adding that carrying out deportation orders inherently means finding, arresting and getting people out of the country who don't want to leave.
Democrats hope discontent with Ice's tactics will turn into votes at the November ballot box, and Richard Gonzalez, chairman of the Democratic Party in Hidalgo County, Texas, said he favored eliminating Ace entirely, saying the agency has "lost its identity" and is no longer easy to fix.
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