Detention numbers have soared in some detention centers across New York over the past year.
An analysis by WXXI, a New York Public News Network member, found that while the average daily detainee population has increased, the majority of people detained had no criminal background. That tracks with trends in detention facilities across the country.
“That really shows you that when we see ICE or other immigration enforcement in the streets, they are really targeting people based on the color of their skin or based on their language. It has very little do with their immigration status,” said Meghan Maloney de Zaldivar, Vice President of Advocacy at the New York Immigration Coalition.
Maloney de Zaldivar says that permeates a level of fear amongst immigrant communities and undermines the public’s trust in due process and the country’s judicial system. Under the current Trump administration, she says, more people are being detained and staying detained.
“ What we have seen across the board, the Trump administration has been targeting anyone who they might perceive as an immigrant. It’s been an all out war on immigrants,” she said.
Locally, the average number of people detained by ICE at the Orange County Jail has more than doubled in the past year, according to data compiled by TRAC Reports, a data research and distribution organization. Average daily population at the county jail has soared from 76 people on January 6, 2025 to 165 people on February 5, 2026.
In early February, local communities learned about an ICE office in New Windsor in Orange County that has been quietly operating in the Hudson Valley for months. It’s about a half hour drive from a proposed ICE facility in the Village of Chester, where thousands of people and lawmakers have opposed the plans.
Advocates push for more immigration protections
New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s $260 billion executive budget includes funding for immigration legal services, housing access vouchers, and language access services. But Maloney de Zaldivar says it’s not enough.
Access to an immigration attorney and counsel remains one of the biggest and underfunded challenges in the state, says Maloney de Zaldivar.
She’s calling on the state legislature and Hochul to allocate $175 million in immigration legal services in this year’s executive budget. At New York’s detention centers like Buffalo Federal Detention Center, she says attorneys don’t have the resources to meet demand.
“The attorneys who serve that facility and are trying to provide the counsel for those folks have an incredibly long wait list, and that’s just one example of the need that is out there for immigration attorneys right now.”
Court data shows that individuals with legal representation were less likely to be issued an immigration removal order.
New York for All, the state bill that would prohibit state collusion with federal immigration enforcement and offer greater protections for immigrants’ due process, has picked up momentum this budget cycle, she says. While immigration advocates have pushed for the bill for years, increased immigration raids nationwide have renewed momentum for it in the state legislature.
“The veil has been unmasked of ICE’s cruelty, and it is on full display whereas previously, oftentimes, it happened in the shadows,” she said.
Image: Exterior of the ICE office in New Windsor, N.Y. (Photo Credit: Kimberly Izar)