New Hamilton County Arrest Reports Show 57% Increase In Illegal Immigrant Arrests Between July & August

Image Credit: Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office – TN / Facebook

The Tennessee Conservative [By Adelia Kirchner] –

According to recent data reports released by the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO), the number of illegal immigrants arrested by local law enforcement went from 44 in July to 69 in August of this year, a 57% month-to-month increase.

Last month, HCSO announced that Sheriff Austin Garrett was going to start providing the public with monthly updates on data related to illegal immigrant arrestees.

“Your Sheriff, Austin Garrett, is committed to you, the public we serve, and one of the most critical parts of that commitment is transparency and accountability in our operations,” the statement read.

“As part of that commitment, Sheriff Garrett will provide a monthly update containing data on arrestees from multiple law enforcement agencies across the county who were booked into the Hamilton County Jail,” HCSO continued. “At the time of booking, these individuals did not meet one or more of the 10 statutory qualifiers used to verify citizenship status under state law.”

Since this announcement, HCSO has released monthly data reports for July and August 2025.

According to officials, the released data “reflects arrestees who self-reported being not lawfully present or whose citizenship status was unknown at the time of arrest.”

Of note, listed violations reflect the total number of charges accrued by the number of arrestees for that specific month and some arrestees have multiple charges.

Both reports list the top three offense categories as traffic violations, license/registration violations and DUIs.

The July data report shows a total of 44 illegal immigrants arrested by Hamilton County law enforcement. 

The specific charges were as follows:

• Traffic Violations: 37
• License/Registration: 31
• DUI: 27
• Substance-Related: 15
• Open Container Law: 8
• Obstruction/Compliance: 6
• Domestic Assault: 5
• Child Neglect: 5
• Reckless Conduct: 4
• Property Crime: 3
• U.S. Marshall Hold: 2
• Robbery: 1
• Conspiracy to Transport: 1

Of these individuals, 27 were found to be from Guatemala, 12 from Mexico, two from Honduras, one from El Salvador, one from Columbia, and one from Canada.

The August data report shows a total of 69 illegal immigrants arrested by Hamilton County law enforcement. 

The specific charges were as follows:

• Traffic Violations: 56
• License/Registration: 43
• DUI: 40
• Substance-Related: 18
• Assault/Harassment: 16
• Obstruction/Compliance: 11
• Sex-Related Offenses: 8
• Reckless Conduct: 5
• Fraud/Identity Crimes: 5
• Child Neglect: 1
• Attempted Aggravated Robbery: 1
• Federal Hold: 1

Of these individuals, 39 were found to be from Guatemala, 18 from Mexico, three from Honduras, two from India, two from Venezuela, one from Ethiopia, one from Canada, one from Marshall Islands, one from Iraq, and one individual’s country of origin was reported as unknown.

These monthly reports also include the number of immigration holds placed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and monthly totals of individuals released to ICE custody.

In July, HCSO placed 35 individuals on an ICE hold and released 37 to ICE.

In August, 58 individuals were placed on an ICE hold and 47 were released to ICE.

Some of these individuals may overlap between categories and these numbers do not represent the same group of people, according to HCSO.

“Timing, case outcomes, and ICE determinations can cause counts to fluctuate across different months,” said HCSO. “The numbers shown reflect different stages in the detention and transfer process.”

HCSO is expected to release the illegal immigrant arrest data for this month at some point in October.

About the Author: Adelia Kirchner is a Tennessee resident and reporter for the Tennessee Conservative. Currently the host of Subtle Rampage Podcast, she has also worked for the South Dakota State Legislature and interned for Senator Bill Hagerty’s Office in Nashville, Tennessee.  You can reach Adelia at adelia@tennesseeconservativenews.com.