Patterns
Specific practices, in specific places, happening to specific people, and since when. 217 documented patterns.
How to read this page
Each tile is a combination the record supports: a practice (how an arrest was made, what custody was like, what happened in the legal process), a place, and who it happened to. A combination appears only when enough well-documented stories back it and it is far more common than chance.
Every tile is built from 4,142 well-documented stories, out of 5,082 public ones, across 52 states: approved stories with at least 2 independent news or court sources, or a single trusted source: a court record, a major fact-checked outlet, a human-rights organization, or a government oversight body, read and coded one by one. Court records are a large share of the single-source stories, so patterns built mostly on them are labeled. The small line is the pattern's share of each month's stories, not a count. Coverage grew over 2025 and 2026, so volume would mislead; share does not. The dot marks the first documented case.
Places and groups reflect where reporting is strong as much as where enforcement is. Open any tile for its stories and judge the evidence directly. The Explore page lets you cross any two things yourself.
Notable patterns
Specific patterns in the record: each opens to its strongest cases, quotes, and a casefile.
Emerging
Became recurring most recently, and a larger share of recent stories than earlier ones. Tap one to open it here.
Receding
Still documented, but a smaller share of recent stories than at their peak.
All specific trends
Each list holds only the places or groups where a pattern has been identified so far; the number beside each is how many patterns. Check more than one to combine them.
217 patterns, in 10 groups. Tap a tile to see examples; each opens to a full casefile.
U.S. citizens and people with status
Citizens, green-card holders, DACA and TPS recipients, visa holders, military families.
Children, parents, and pregnant people
Minors in custody, parents separated from citizen children, caregivers, pregnancy in detention.
Protesters, observers, and journalists
People detained or hurt while protesting, filming, or reporting.
Check-ins, interviews, and courthouses
Arrests at the appointments people were told to attend.
Arrests on the street, at work, and at home
Masked agents, traffic stops, smashed windows, raids, warrantless entry, force.
Inside detention
Medical neglect, food and water, shackling, solitary, abuse, hunger strikes, deaths.
Habeas and bond
What people asked courts for, what courts did, and how the government responded.
Removals and the legal process
Deported despite court orders or pending cases, transfers, no lawyer, months in custody.
Sent to a third country
Removed to countries that are not their own: El Salvador, Eswatini, South Sudan, Mexico.
After the arrest
Long-time residents, lost jobs, families who could not find them, official claims disputed.