Illegal immigrants who have lived as long-term residents in the United States have been most affected by the Trump administration’s deportation efforts, according to a new report. 

People who have lived in the U.S. for over a decade accounted for 44.4% of people deported in recent months, while more than 50% of deportees have made their home in the country for at least six years, according to a Kino Border Initiative case study focused on Mexican migrants removed to a temporary Mexican government facility in Nogales, Sonora.

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The analysis investigating roughly 300 sample cases at the facility from May through July indicates many of those targeted for removal at President Donald Trump’s direction did not cross into the U.S. during the Biden administration, which oversaw record levels of illegal immigration from 2021 through 2025, but rather appeared to come into the country dating back to the Obama administration and prior periods.

When looking at federal data from the last 25 years, illegal immigration peaked in 2000 under former President Bill Clinton, capping off years of surging illegal immigration that sparked in the 1990s following a marked drop in border crossings due to an amnesty package signed by President Ronald Reagan in 1986. 

Illegal crossings generally trended down following 2000, but began surging again under the Biden administration, when they broke records in 2023. 

In the wake of the Trump administration’s efforts to deport illegal residents, local and state law enforcement have played a critical role in targeting migrants, according to the KBI case study. While Immigration and Customs Enforcement has become the focal point of deportation operations, 33% of deportations started with a regional or state law enforcement stop, according to the organization’s analysis of survey participants in Nogales. 

Of people deported who had been living in the U.S. at the time of their arrest, 33.3% were initially stopped or questioned by state or local police before ICE took custody, KBI said. 

KBI is a faith-based migrants’ advocacy group that works on both sides of the Mexico border, in Arizona and Nogales. The Catholic organization provides assistance each year to thousands of migrants who it says are fleeing violence and poverty. In 2024, approximately 500 people per month arrived at KBI’s migrant aid center in Nogales. 

In its latest report detailing deportees surveyed in Sonora, KBI criticized the Trump administration for targeting people who have lived in the U.S. for years, arguing the policy is uprooting families trying to make a better life from communities they call home.

 “According to our survey responses, 57.2% of people deported were living in the U.S. at the time of their detention, compared to only 5% of deportees that KBI served in 2024,” the report reads. 

“Many of these individuals have deep roots in their communities, including U.S.-born children, spouses, and other dependents,” it continues. ”This shift in the profile of deportees highlights not only a change in enforcement patterns but also the widespread separation of families, creating emotional, financial, and caregiving hardships for those left in the U.S.”

The Trump administration initially prioritized illegal immigrants accused of violent crimes, including suspected members of Tren de Aragua, MS-13, and other notorious gangs, for removal. 

Under the auspices of the “America First” agenda, ICE has also in recent months begun to work with local and state partners to target migrant laborers suspected of being in the country illegally, including in a recent raid on a Hyundai manufacturing plant in Georgia. 

Those workers are draining U.S. resources from citizens, the administration says. It has also sought to tie illegal immigrants to a rise in violent crime, and has argued that businesses are exploiting the work of migrants willing to work for low wages.

Critics have argued that many migrants contribute invaluable services to the economy, working jobs that nationals often decline, and filling science, technology, engineering, and math positions that employers have struggled to fill. 

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Some have offered a compromise: stop targeting those in the country without a criminal history, and reform the immigration system to make it easier for those who want to contribute to the U.S. to come here legally.

“ICE workplace raids on farms, at construction sites, and in restaurants and hotels, have led to unintended consequences that are harming the communities we represent and the businesses that employ our constituents,” six GOP lawmakers from California wrote earlier this year in a letter to Trump. “We have heard from employers in our districts that recent ICE raids are not only targeting undocumented workers, but also creating widespread fear among other employees, including those with legal immigration status. This fear is driving vital workers out of critical industries.”