ICE Activity in Dallas–Fort Worth — Regional Tracker

Enforcement by the Numbers

The Dallas ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) field office covers 128 counties across North and East Texas. Under the Trump administration’s second-term enforcement surge, this office has become one of the busiest in the nation.

100 arrests per day on average by late 2025, the second-highest rate nationally. Since October 2025, more than 9,644 people have been arrested in the Dallas ERO area of responsibility.²
84 arrests in a single day on January 26, 2026, spanning Dallas, Fort Worth, Arlington, Irving, Garland, and Collin County.¹
75 daily arrest target set by an internal ICE call leaked to reporters, establishing minimum quotas for each field office.³
108% year-over-year increase: From January through October 2025, 12,100 people were arrested in the Dallas ERO zone. Of those, 62% had no criminal convictions—up from 44% the previous year.⁴

“They’re not going after criminals. They’re going after people at their probation appointments, people at the courthouse, people on job sites. The numbers tell you everything you need to know.”

Operations & Tactics

Probation Office Arrests — November 2025

ICE agents began entering Dallas County Community Supervision and Corrections Department (CSCD) offices to arrest people reporting for probation appointments. Dallas County Commissioner Elba Garcia publicly raised the alarm in November 2025, calling the practice a fundamental breach of trust between the community and the justice system. When people are afraid to report to their probation officers, it creates a cascade of missed appointments and bench warrants that further entangle people in the criminal legal system.⁵

Courthouse Arrests — 2025–2026

With the Trump administration’s January 2025 revocation of the sensitive locations policy, ICE agents have been conducting arrests at the Dallas County courthouse. The former policy had designated courthouses, schools, hospitals, and places of worship as locations where enforcement would not normally occur. Without that protection, immigrant community members and advocates report that people are avoiding court dates, even in cases where they are witnesses or victims of crime, for fear of being detained.³

84-Person Sweep — January 26, 2026

In one of the largest single-day operations in the region, ICE arrested 84 people across the DFW metroplex on January 26, 2026. Agents fanned out across Dallas, Fort Worth, Arlington, Irving, Garland, and Collin County in a coordinated sweep. ICE described the operation as targeting individuals with prior removal orders and criminal histories, but the overall regional data—showing 62% of arrestees having no criminal convictions—raises questions about how broadly “criminal history” is being defined.¹

Construction Site Raids — 2025–2026

ICE worksite enforcement operations have hit the DFW construction industry particularly hard. Foreign-born workers make up 38.6% of the region’s construction workforce, and the raids have triggered a labor crisis that extends far beyond immigration. Construction loans in affected areas are down 30%, and multiple companies have filed for bankruptcy as projects stall without workers. The economic ripple effects are being felt across the housing market, commercial development, and related supply chain businesses.¹⁴

Dallas ICE Field Office Shooting — September 2025

In September 2025, a shooting at the Dallas ICE processing facility resulted in the deaths of two detainees. The incident brought renewed scrutiny to conditions and security at the facility at 8101 N. Stemmons Freeway, which had already been the subject of overcrowding complaints. Activists subsequently filed code complaints against the facility, arguing that it was operating beyond its capacity and in violation of local building codes.¹³

Code Complaints Against ICE Field Office — February 2026

Community activists filed formal code complaints against the Dallas ICE field office at 8101 N. Stemmons Freeway, citing overcrowding and safety violations. The facility, originally designed as an office building, has been repurposed for processing and short-term detention, raising questions about whether it meets fire code and occupancy standards for holding people. The city’s code enforcement response has become a test case for whether local building codes can be leveraged against federal immigration facilities.¹³

Detention Infrastructure

Hutchins Mega-Facility — Blocked February 16, 2026

The federal government attempted to acquire a 1-million-square-foot warehouse in Hutchins, a small city south of Dallas, to convert into an ICE detention facility with capacity for 9,500 to 10,000 beds. It would have been one of the largest immigration detention centers in the country. On February 16, 2026, Majestic Realty, the property owner, rejected the government’s offer to purchase the site after sustained community pressure from Hutchins residents and regional advocacy groups. The decision was a significant victory for the opposition, though advocates remain watchful for alternative sites.⁸

Prairieland Detention Center — Leqaa Kordia Case

Leqaa Kordia, a Palestinian woman held at the Prairieland Detention Center near Dallas, was hospitalized on February 6, 2026 after suffering a seizure in custody. Her legal team expressed fear for her health and safety, saying she had not received adequate medical attention prior to the emergency. The case drew attention to conditions at Prairieland and the treatment of detainees from conflict-affected countries.¹²

Local Government Responses

Dallas PD Rejects $25 Million 287(g) Offer

The Dallas Police Department, under Chief Eddie García and then Chief Al Comeaux, rejected a $25 million federal offer to enter a 287(g) agreement that would have deputized Dallas officers to act as immigration agents. The Dallas City Council backed the decision. Chief Comeaux argued that the agreement would undermine community trust and make it harder for officers to do their core public safety work, since immigrant residents would stop calling police or cooperating as witnesses.⁹

Tarrant County Expands 287(g) — February 10, 2026

In sharp contrast to Dallas, Tarrant County has actively embraced cooperation with ICE. The county has maintained a 287(g) agreement since 2017, and on February 10, 2026, the Tarrant County Commissioners Court voted 3–2 to expand the partnership and seek additional state grant funding to support the program. The expansion allows more county jail staff to be trained and deputized for immigration enforcement screening.¹⁰

Arlington Rejects ICE Partnership

Arlington Mayor Jim Ross and the city council rejected any formal partnership with ICE for immigration enforcement operations. The decision aligned Arlington with Dallas in refusing to use local police resources for federal immigration work, despite the city sitting geographically between Dallas and Tarrant counties, which have taken opposing positions on the issue.¹¹

Jurisdiction	287(g) Status	Notes
Dallas (city)	Rejected	Turned down $25M federal offer; City Council backed Chief Comeaux⁹
Tarrant County	Active & expanding	287(g) since 2017; expanded Feb 10, 2026 (3–2 vote)¹⁰
Arlington	Rejected	Mayor Jim Ross and council refused ICE partnership¹¹
Collin County	Cooperating	Included in Jan 26 sweep operations¹

Community Response & Resistance

CLEAR: Faith-Based Rapid Response Network

CLEAR (Community Leaders for Equity, Accountability, and Resilience) is a multi-faith network of approximately 40 clergy members operating a respite center located directly behind the Dallas ICE field office on Stemmons Freeway. The center serves 50 to 100 people daily, providing food, legal referrals, and pastoral care to families affected by enforcement operations. Every Monday, CLEAR organizes prayer vigils at the site. The network represents congregations from across the DFW metroplex, including Presbyterian, Methodist, Catholic, Baptist, Jewish, and Muslim communities.⁷

Student Walkouts — January–February 2026

Students across DFW organized a wave of walkouts protesting ICE enforcement and the climate of fear in their communities:

Fort Worth ISD — January 31, 2026: Students at multiple Fort Worth schools walked out in one of the first organized student protests in the region.
Townview Magnet Center, Dallas — February 10, 2026: Students at Townview, a DISD magnet campus in southern Dallas, staged a walkout that drew significant media attention.
Booker T. Washington HSPVA, Dallas: Students at the prestigious arts high school joined the walkout movement in solidarity.

In response, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton launched investigations into three school districts over the protests, claiming the districts may have facilitated or encouraged the walkouts. The investigations have been widely criticized by education advocates as an attempt to chill student free expression.⁶

Hutchins Community Mobilization

When news broke that the federal government was pursuing the Hutchins warehouse for a mega-detention facility, residents of the small city organized rapidly. Community meetings, petitions, and direct pressure on the property owner, Majestic Realty, ultimately resulted in the company rejecting the sale on February 16, 2026. The successful mobilization has become a model for other communities facing proposed detention facility siting.⁸

Economic Impact

The enforcement surge is having measurable economic consequences across the DFW construction and development sector:

38.6% of the region’s construction workforce is foreign-born. Worksite raids and the fear of raids have caused severe labor shortages across residential and commercial projects.¹⁴
Construction loans down 30% in areas affected by ICE enforcement operations, as lenders grow wary of project completion risk.¹⁴
Companies filing bankruptcy: Multiple DFW-area construction firms have filed for bankruptcy, citing the inability to maintain workforce levels sufficient to meet contract obligations.¹⁴

The construction industry isn’t the only sector affected, but it illustrates the contradiction at the center of enforcement-at-all-costs policy: the same economy that depends on immigrant labor is being destabilized by the campaign to remove it.

Timeline of Key Events

Date	Event
Sept 2025	Shooting at Dallas ICE processing facility; 2 detainees killed¹³
Oct 2025	Dallas ERO reaches ~100 arrests/day average, 2nd highest nationally²
Nov 2025	Commissioner Elba Garcia raises alarm over ICE arrests in probation offices⁵
Jan 2026	Internal ICE call reveals 75 daily arrest quota for Dallas ERO³
Jan 26, 2026	84 people arrested in single-day DFW sweep¹
Jan 31, 2026	Fort Worth ISD student walkouts⁶
Feb 6, 2026	Leqaa Kordia hospitalized from Prairieland Detention Center¹²
Feb 10, 2026	Townview Magnet Center walkout; Tarrant County expands 287(g)⁶¹⁰
Feb 12, 2026	Arlington rejects ICE partnership¹¹
Feb 16, 2026	Majestic Realty rejects sale of Hutchins warehouse to ICE⁸
Feb 16, 2026	AG Paxton launches investigation into 3 school districts over walkouts⁶
Feb 2026	Code complaints filed against Dallas ICE field office for overcrowding¹³