ICE raids in Michigan have escalated sharply since early 2025. Arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement rose from 952 in 2024 to 3,298 in 2025, with another 1,075 arrests recorded in the first half of March 2026 alone, and most of those arrested had no criminal record.1MLive. As ICE Arrests Keep Climbing in Michigan, Most Are Not Criminals The state now hosts the largest immigration detention center in the Midwest, federal judges have issued a wave of rulings ordering bond hearings for people held there, and enforcement has reached into courthouses, federal buildings, and the Ambassador Bridge crossing.
Where Arrests Are Happening
In January 2025, the Trump administration rescinded the longstanding “sensitive locations” policy that had discouraged ICE from making arrests near schools, churches, and hospitals.2Michigan Advance. Michigan Immigrant Rights Advocates Gear Up to Combat Trump’s ICE Policies After that change, advocates reported ICE agents detaining people outside courthouses, at federal buildings during scheduled hearings, and in residential neighborhoods during early-morning operations. Community activists in Southwest Detroit reported a 230% jump in daily arrests compared to the prior year and organized street patrols and WhatsApp alerts to warn residents of unmarked vehicles.3BridgeDetroit. Fighting for the Right to Live in Peace
Courthouse and Federal Building Arrests
On June 11, 2025, ICE agents arrested at least four Venezuelan migrants inside the Patrick V. McNamara Federal Building in downtown Detroit immediately after an immigration judge dismissed their asylum cases. Witnesses said the individuals were handcuffed in a waiting room moments after leaving the courtroom.4Outlier Media. ICE Arrests Detroit Migrants at Courthouse The People’s Assembly, a Detroit-area coalition, reported that five or six people total were detained that morning and placed on “expedited removal,” a fast-track deportation process that typically bypasses immigration court hearings.5CBS News Detroit. ICE Raid Southwest Detroit, Protest, People’s Assembly Building security later barred members of the public, including a reporter and Detroit City Councilmember Gabriela Santiago-Romero, from the courtroom.
The pattern prompted the Michigan Supreme Court to consider a proposed rule barring civil arrests inside state courthouses unless officers hold a valid judicial warrant. At a January 2026 public hearing, Washtenaw County Prosecuting Attorney Eli Savit testified that since the arrests began, there had been “a troubling increase in victims who are noncitizens failing to show up to court to testify against their abusers.”6Planet Detroit. ICE Arrests Michigan Supreme Court
Ambassador Bridge Detentions
The Ambassador Bridge between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario has become a distinct enforcement flashpoint. Representative Rashida Tlaib reported that between January and March 2025, at least 213 people were detained at the crossing, and roughly 90% of them had ended up in the customs lane after making an accidental wrong turn.7NPR. Immigrant Arrests Detroit Canada Border Bridge Detention Among those detained were families with U.S. citizen children. A Guatemalan woman identified as “Sarahi” was held nearly six days with her two American citizen children in a windowless office building near the bridge and described the experience as feeling “like a kidnapping.”8CBS News Detroit. US-Canada Border Detentions Detroit Ambassador Bridge Tlaib visited a CBP facility near the bridge on March 21, 2025 and reported that a Venezuelan man detained after a wrong turn had attempted suicide after three days in custody.
Home Raids
On the same June 2025 morning as the McNamara Building arrests, the People’s Assembly alleged that ICE agents raided a home in Southwest Detroit and detained an entire family, including a small child.9Fox 2 Detroit. ICE Raids Detroit Draw Protests Amid Surge in Deportations ICE declined to confirm the specifics, citing “routine daily operations.”
North Lake: The Midwest’s Largest ICE Detention Center
The North Lake Correctional Facility in Baldwin reopened in mid-June 2025 and dramatically expanded Michigan’s detention capacity. The 1,800-bed facility is operated by the GEO Group under a 15-year contract with ICE that the ACLU of Michigan described as worth $1 billion.10ACLU of Michigan. ACLU Opposes Opening North Lake Correctional Facility The site functions as a “multi-state detention facility” for ICE’s Chicago area of responsibility, so it holds people picked up far outside Michigan.11ABC 7 Chicago. Largest Midwest ICE Detention Center Opens in Baldwin, Michigan By April 2026, it averaged 1,410 detainees daily, and the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center reported that the total number of people in ICE custody statewide had increased six-fold since the facility opened.12Bridge Michigan. Advocates: ICE Denying Medical, Legal Access at Michigan Detention Center
In May 2026, the ACLU of Michigan and the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center filed a formal complaint with the director of ICE’s Detroit Field Office alleging failures in medical care, legal access, and basic communication. They described a detainee who suffered a hypertensive emergency after being denied blood pressure medication, and another who deteriorated mentally and physically to the point of becoming mute. Pastor Ricardo Granado of the Lutheran Church Hispanic Ministries reported being turned away from the facility on multiple occasions despite his clerical status.13Michigan Advance. Immigrant Rights Lawyers Send Complaint to ICE Over Conditions at North Lake Attorneys visiting the facility said detainees were often processed for deportation so quickly that lawyers could not reach them before they were transferred out of state.14Interlochen Public Radio. What Lawyers Have Seen and Heard Inside North Lake Correctional Facility In April 2026, the group No Detention Centers in Michigan reported a hunger strike and work stoppage at the facility; ICE denied any strike had occurred.12Bridge Michigan. Advocates: ICE Denying Medical, Legal Access at Michigan Detention Center
On December 15, 2025, Nenko Gantchev, a Bulgarian national who had been arrested by ICE on September 23, was found unresponsive in his cell and pronounced dead. ICE attributed the death to “suspected natural causes,” but his family alleged he had been denied necessary medical treatment and dietary modifications for his diabetes. U.S. Representatives Haley Stevens and Hillary Scholten asked Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons for a federal investigation.15Michigan Advance. Lawmakers Seek Answers After Detainee Dies in ICE Custody in Michigan
What Federal Judges Have Ruled
Starting in late 2025, detainees at North Lake began filing habeas corpus petitions challenging their detention. The wave grew past 800 petitions, and federal judges granted the majority of those they ruled on, generally ordering the government to provide a bond hearing or release the detainee within days.16Michigan Public. Judges Rule Hundreds of Immigrants Unlawfully Detained at ICE Center in Northern Michigan
The core question was whether detainees apprehended inside the United States could be held under the mandatory detention provisions typically applied to people stopped at the border. In rulings beginning December 12, 2025, Western District of Michigan Judge Paul L. Maloney held that the mandatory detention statute did not apply and that detainees were entitled to bond hearings under a different provision of immigration law. In Hernandez Guevara v. Noem, Judge Maloney conditionally granted a habeas petition, ordering either a bond hearing within five business days or immediate release.17Justia. Hernandez Guevara v. Noem et al Eastern District Judge Brandy R. McMillion, ruling in Lopez-Campos v. Raycraft, wrote that “the recent shift to use the mandatory detention framework … is not only wrong but also fundamentally unfair.”16Michigan Public. Judges Rule Hundreds of Immigrants Unlawfully Detained at ICE Center in Northern Michigan
Winning a habeas petition did not always mean freedom. Immigration judges, who are appointed by the Department of Justice rather than the judiciary, frequently denied bond by labeling petitioners a “flight risk,” even after a federal judge ordered a hearing. Lawyers said they had received accounts that immigration judges were “instructed verbally” to deny bond on that basis.16Michigan Public. Judges Rule Hundreds of Immigrants Unlawfully Detained at ICE Center in Northern Michigan
If Someone You Know Has Been Detained
To locate a person taken into ICE custody, families can use the federal ICE Detainee Locator online tool, which requires the person’s full name and country of birth or their alien registration number. The DHS VINE system is an alternative that advocates say often updates faster.18Michigan Immigrant Rights Center. Michigan Immigrant Rights Center For children under 18, the Office of Refugee Resettlement’s national call center can be reached at 1-800-203-7001.19Michigan Legal Help. Detention and Deportation
The Michigan Immigrant Rights Center provides free legal intakes and advice to all people detained by ICE in the state and runs a detained-immigrant information line at (734) 794-9963. It also distributes multilingual “Know Your Rights” materials and family preparedness guides in English, Spanish, Arabic, French, Dari, Pashto, Bengali, and Kinyarwanda.20Michigan Immigrant Rights Center. Immigration Legal Services4Outlier Media. ICE Arrests Detroit Migrants at Courthouse19Michigan Legal Help. Detention and Deportation
How Local Police Fit In
Cooperation between Michigan law enforcement agencies and ICE varies widely. Only about seven of the state’s roughly 575 law enforcement agencies maintain 287(g) agreements with ICE, which allow local officers to perform certain immigration enforcement functions.21East Grand Rapids Department of Public Safety. Immigration Enforcement Information The Jackson County Sheriff’s Office entered such an agreement in March 2025, prompting more than 100 residents to appear at a Board of Commissioners meeting in January 2026 demanding its termination.22MLive. Residents Ask County to End ICE Agreement Other agencies, including the East Grand Rapids Department of Public Safety, have publicly stated that their officers lack authority to enforce civil immigration laws and are not required to honor ICE detainers that lack a judicial warrant.
Pending State Legislation
In August 2025, state Senators Stephanie Chang, Mary Cavanagh, and Jeremy Moss introduced Senate Bills 508 through 510. The bills would designate schools, houses of worship, hospitals, courthouses, and facilities serving children, pregnant women, and crime victims as “safe zones” where federal immigration agents could not enter without a warrant.23Fox 2 Detroit. Michigan Lawmakers Want ICE Safe Zones at Schools, Churches SB 508 was reported favorably from the Committee on Civil Rights, Judiciary, and Public Safety in March 2026 and referred to the Committee of the Whole, though no floor vote had occurred as of mid-2026.24Michigan Legislature. Senate Bill 508