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Phoenix Area Ranked 9th In ICE Arrests In 2017

Arrests by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement jumped by nearly a third last year, after the Trump administration broadened enforcement guidelines.

But a new Pew Research Center analysis found the percentage increase in Arizona was lower than the national surge.

The analysis breaks ICE arrest numbers down by the agency’s areas of responsibility. The Phoenix area, for example, includes all of Arizona. While the St. Paul area includes a large part of the Midwest.

ICE arrested about 6,500 hundred people in the Phoenix area last year. It was the ninth most in the country. But it was 10 percentage points below the overall national jump in arrests.

An ICE spokesperson declined to comment on the Pew analysis.

Government data show local ICE agents were busier with deportations. They removed more than 20,000 people from the Phoenix area last year.

Matthew Casey has won Edward R. Murrow awards for hard news and sports reporting since he joined KJZZ as a senior field correspondent in 2015.