In this report we focus on this question: did ICE targeting change in the first days of the Trump administration? New Notices to Appear (NTA) issued by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) dated after Trump assumed office (January 20-January 31) are compared to DHS NTAs dated from January 1-January 19 while former President Biden was still in office.

While news headlines saw Chicago with early immigration raids once Trump took office, residents of Cook County where Chicago is located actually showed lower than expected numbers of NTAs issued during the last 12 days of January 2025.

Similar to Cook County in Illinois, NTAs issued in Dallas County, Texas ended in January with a notably lower number of NTAs than would be expected if it had been similar to the national pattern. Denver County, Colorado also showed a notable decline.

There were also counties with notable proportional increases under Trump. These included San Diego County, California. Residents of Pinal County, Arizona also saw a much larger number of NTAs than would be expected. This contrasted with neighboring Maricopa County in Arizona where Phoenix is located which had fewer NTAs issued than the overall national pattern.

Harris County, Texas, where Houston is located and the county with the most NTAs in the country in January 2025, saw lower-than-expected NTAs issued once Trump assumed office. The residents of Miami-Dade County, Florida also experienced lower than expected NTAs issued.

The full report provides details county-by-county, state-by-state, and nationality-by-nationality.

Going forward, continued empirical monitoring of trends in immigration enforcement will be essential. TRAC will continue tracking cases arriving at Immigration Court as February and March case-by-case court records become available. These will be made available in its free public web query tool New Proceedings Filed in Immigration Court.