How did the 2025 L.A. raids compare to Biden’s ICE operations?

Good morning. It’s Friday, June 12. You can expect another hot, bright day that verges on unpleasant in the afternoon, touching the 90s in the Valley.

And a quick note: In yesterday’s newsletter, the link to Pablo Goldstein’s excellent guide to World Cup parking was unfortunately broken. Read it here.

For 40 days last summer, federal agents carried out a concentrated campaign of arrests across the Los Angeles region — raiding businesses, homes, and public spaces and bringing about one of the most chaotic and, for many residents, terrifying periods in recent Los Angeles history.

But amid the sometimes-violent confrontations between federal officials and protesters, and the seemingly ad hoc sweeps at Home Depots and car washes across the vast region, it was nearly impossible to measure in real time how many people were being arrested and deported. (The raid surge began on June 6 and ended July 15, when the Trump administration pulled 2,000 National Guard members from the region and daily ICE arrests fell significantly.)

Now, however, thanks to Freedom of Information Act requests from the Deportation Data Project, we have documentation of the number of arrests and deportations that resulted from those raids — about 3,000 people were arrested in the larger Los Angeles area region, and about three quarters of them were deported. The data also reveals surprising contrasts between Trump’s immigration enforcement in the Summer of 2025 and how the Department of Homeland Security operated in Los Angeles under President Biden.

The Deportation Data Project, led by a group of lawyers and academics, gathers information about every ICE arrest nationwide and publicizes it in a database. Although arrests are broken down by region, it’s difficult to narrow the data to L.A. County specifically: the Los Angeles “Area of Responsibility” as defined by DHS also includes six nearby counties.

To compare how 3,000 arrests in the summer of 2025 stacks up against the Biden years, a review of the Project’s data from the same 40 calendar days in 2023 is instructive. (There are gaps in the data from 2024, so we’re using 2023 instead).

We can start by comparing total arrests.

2023: 912

2025: 3012

This increase of about 230% reflects a nationwide spike in arrests that began taking shape even before the L.A. raids, at the urging of Trump deputy Stephen Miller.

The data also tracks the percentage of detainees who had been convicted of crimes in the U.S. at the time of their arrest.

2023: 42%

2025: 32%

Notably, though ICE arrested a higher percentage of criminal offenders under the Biden administration, a majority of arrestees in the 2023 timeframe had still never been convicted of a crime.

Finally, one of the most surprising contrasts between 2023 and 2025 is the percentage of arrests that resulted in deportations.

2023: 49%

2025: 75%

Even with two additional years to process cases, fewer than half of arrests from the Biden-era sample have ended in a deportation — compared to a full three-quarters from last summer.

There’s one major factor driving that increase: About 26% of arrestees from the 2025 raids who left the country were “voluntary” removals, meaning they officially self-deported. By comparison, almost no arrestees from the 2023 sample left voluntarily.

The Marshall Project reported last month that voluntary departures have increased sevenfold under Trump, attributing the increase to “miserable conditions” in detention centers, combined with an order last year that prohibits arrestees from fighting their cases outside of detention.

In some ways, this last data point represents the starkest distinction between the Trump Administration’s deportation campaigns and those of his predecessors: While the number of arrests made during the 2025 surge was about 230% higher than during the same period in 2023, the number of Los Angeles residents who were fully removed from the country increased by more than 400%.

The dean of USC’s esteemed Marshall School of Business, Geoffrey Garrett, will leave his position in August, after a faculty revolt revealed by L.A. Material’s Tomo Chien. 

Following USC’s announcement of the move this week, Tomo and L.A. Material reporter Matt Hamilton have the inside scoop on the dean’s turbulent departure, including a faculty town hall that turned into a near riot.

“It felt like in the movies, where you need to rush onstage and pull the person off because it’s getting worse and worse,” said one staffer who witnessed the blowup. “Just cut the lights. Kill it.”

STOPPAGE TIME: In an exclusive, Fox News reported yesterday morning that the Trump administration is cutting off federal funding to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority in response to “financial mismanagement” by the agency.

PENALTY SHOT: The New York Times reports that Dr. Neal ElAttrache, a prominent L.A. sports doctor and the head physician for both the Dodgers and the Rams, supported controversial UFC fighter Conor McGregor’s use of performance enhancing drugs. 

TURNOVER: The L.A. Times covered a controversy at the Mission Inn in Riverside, where the historic hotel’s owner, after selling the property, made off with two beloved paintings that had lived on the property for more than a hundred years.

CORNER KICK: In a commentary piece for The LA Local, sex worker Antonia Crane tells the story of a time she was arrested in a sting operation in Koreatown, and what she believes could be the effects of heightened enforcement during the World Cup for others in her field.

CREATING SPACE: L.A.’s opening World Cup match kicks off today, with a showdown between Paraguay and Team USA at 6 p.m. in SoFi Stadium. Some public watch parties, like the one outside the Autry Museum, are sold out. But you can still catch the game outside the Pasadena Civic Auditorium, or buy $10 tickets to the daily Fan Festival in the Coliseum.

SLIDE TACKLE: The Hansen Dam Aquatic Center, one of the largest pools in America, reopens for the season this Saturday with daily swimming. The pool’s impressive waterslide, which recently underwent renovations, will reopen the same day.

EQUALIZER: The LA Pride Parade — not to be confused with the WeHo Pride Parade, which was last weekend — will march down Hollywood Boulevard this Sunday starting at 11 a.m. A Pride Village with vendors, food trucks, and an “Erotic City” will extend from Vine to Gower.

THE PITCH: The Blue Note Jazz Festival unofficially kicks off summer at the Hollywood Bowl this weekend, with performances on Saturday and Sunday headlined by Wyclef Jean and Patti LaBelle.

For today’s peek inside our subscriber-only Discord server, our own Pablo Goldstein discovers a Facebook Marketplace antique in #foodchat:

AND FINALLY… A poem to pair with your morning coffee: “[Lana Turner has collapsed!]” by Frank O’Hara.

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