When members of a Westchester County immigrant hub said they were living in fear of secretive federal deportation efforts in early 2026, USA TODAY Network-New York journalists dug into their reporting that is shedding light on the situation.
Reporters Chris McKenna and Nancy Cutler have followed numerous cases of local residents being picked up by immigration enforcement officials, tracking their stories from local streets and police stations to federal detainment facilities and, in some cases, to their native countries.
At the same time, the network’s coverage has raised key questions of local officials and lawmakers in Albany about politically charged debates over restricting immigration enforcement activity in New York.
The monthslong investigation has revealed once-distinct legal separations between local police and federal immigration authorities are being blurred. It comes in the second year of the Trump administration’s push to reduce illegal immigration and find undocumented people it deems deportable.
How USA TODAY Network revealed rising stakes of federal deportation push in NY
The stakes of improving public understanding of the deportation effort are becoming increasingly clear, as the number of interactions between federal immigration authorities and local law enforcement have surged over the past 16 months, the investigation revealed.
As McKenna reports: Whenever immigration authorities want police or a jail or prison to hold someone for their agents to scoop up, they send a detainer request. And nearly 3,400 of those requests were sent to agencies across New York in 2024, according to ICE data collected by a research group known as the Deportation Data Project and analyzed by the USA TODAY Network.
That number nearly quadrupled In 2025 under the second Trump administration. New York’s detainers totaled about 12,700 that year, and are on track to surpass that level in 2026, according to the ICE data.
But those numbers told only part of the story. The network’s reporting has drilled down to the personal impacts felt by those being detained and deported by federal immigration officials, as well as their family members and neighbors they leave behind.
USA TODAY Network-New York will continue to cover this crucial issue with a focus on keeping the public informed about how changes to the complex web of immigration policies and law enforcement systems affects communities statewide.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: ICE interactions with police in NY are rising. How we reported it
Reporting by David Robinson, New York State Team / Rockland/Westchester Journal News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
