WASHINGTON, D.C. – A new analysis of FBI arrest data released today by FWD.us, Arresting Progress, reveals an alarming return to extreme “law and order” policies and enforcement tactics, reversing nearly two decades of bipartisan progress toward more evidence-based approaches to addressing substance use, mental health crises, and homelessness outside of the criminal justice system.

The report shows arrests for low-level charges—including vagrancy, simple drug possession, and federal immigration violations—saw massive increases between 2024 and 2025. The sharpest spike occurred in immigration arrests, which nearly tripled (+188%), alongside a 44% surge in vagrancy arrests targeting individuals experiencing homelessness.

 “We know what actually builds safe communities: housing, healthcare, and local violence prevention—not mass criminalization. Rolling back smart criminal justice reforms and supercharging low-level enforcement only ruins lives, deepens racial disparities, and drains taxpayer dollars. It is time for federal, state, and local leaders to course-correct before we lock in another era of failed enforcement policies,” said Zoë Towns, Executive Director at FWD.us

For nearly twenty years, state and federal leaders implemented evidence-based reforms that successfully drove down incarceration and invested in what works to reduce crime and violence. By 2022, the jail and prison populations had fallen 21% from their 2008 peak, Black imprisonment rates declined by nearly half, and violent and property crimes experienced sharp reductions nationwide.

However, recent legislative and judicial rollbacks have triggered an immediate resurgence in arrests:

• Impact of Grants Pass Ruling: Following the Supreme Court’s decision allowing local jurisdictions to arrest people for sleeping outside, vagrancy arrests skyrocketed nationwide with California (+58%), Texas (+67%) and Hawaii (+325%) seeing the largest increase in the number of vagrancy arrests.
• Drug Policy Reversals: States that rolled back reforms to their drug laws saw sharp increases in arrests. Following California’s Proposition 36, which allows for a felony conviction for simple drug possession, arrests for possession of non-marijuana drugs surged by 24%, while Oregon saw a 39% increase after reversing Measure 110 that had decriminalized possession of a small amount of drugs.
• Racial Disparities Widening: Despite similar usage rates across races, Black Americans were arrested for marijuana possession at nearly five times the rate of white Americans, accounting for 83% of the overall national increase in marijuana arrests in 2025. The increase in marijuana possession arrests comes despite the fact that the majority of Americans live in states that have legalized marijuana.
• Accelerated Immigration Enforcement: Driven by White House directives setting daily arrest quotas of 3,000 for ICE and $261 billion in congressional appropriations, immigration arrests surged dramatically, averaging 36,093 per month in the first seven months of 2026. This unprecedented increase is being further supercharged by incentives for local law enforcement to participate in the 287(g) program.

Economic and Human Toll

Even when formal charges are eventually dropped, low-level arrests carry severe financial consequences for working families struggling with rising living costs. A single arrest can lead to days or months in pre-trial detention, employment loss, housing instability, and immediate economic distress for the person involved and their family.

FWD.us warns that without immediate course correction from federal, state, and local policymakers, the nation faces an escalating wave of mass criminalization that drains taxpayer funds from critical healthcare and community safety infrastructure.

To read the full analysis and view state-by-state data breakdowns, click here.