15K Deported In SoCal Immigration Crackdown: UCLA Study – Patch

15K Deported In SoCal Immigration Crackdown: UCLA Study  Patch

A new UCLA study quantifies the impact of the Trump administration's immigration enforcement surge. LOS ANGELES, CA — Nearly 15,000 people arrested by federal immigration agents across Southern California since the beginning of 2025 have been deported, according to a new UCLA study that found immigration enforcement remained elevated more than a year after the Trump administration launched its crackdown in Los Angeles. At the height of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement surge in June and July 2025, 75% of those arrested were eventually deported, according to researchers with the Deportation Data Project, a collaboration between UCLA and the UC Berkeley School of Law. The study examined ICE arrests, detention and deportations across seven Southern California counties: Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura.

Los Angeles accounted for one-third of all arrests made outside jails and prisons, by far the largest share of any city in the region. "The extraordinary impact of the surge is now clear. Nearly 15,000 people have been deported from the region," said Graeme Blair, a UCLA political science professor and co-director of the project. "Now we can also quantify what immigrant communities here have felt since the surge began in the summer of 2025: that enforcement never stopped. Over 1,000 noncitizens were arrested just in July 2026." The findings