Arrests for several lower-level offenses increased across the United States in 2025, even as violent crime rates, including homicide, dropped to historic national lows, according to an analysis of federal data by the advocacy group FWD.us. The group found vagrancy arrests rose 44%, from 22,769 in 2024 to 32,728 in 2025. More than half the increase came from California, Hawaii, Nevada and Arizona. Vagrancy laws generally target people without stable housing or work, and the report said enforcement falls disproportionately on people experiencing homelessness. Marijuana-possession arrests increased 6%, from 190,182 to 201,273, with much of the increase in Southern states where the drug remains illegal. Black Americans accounted for 83% of the national increase in those arrests and 45% of all marijuana-possession arrests, the analysis found. Arrests for possession of drugs other than marijuana rose 3%, from 508,087 to 523,520. FWD.us pointed to policy reversals in California and Oregon. California voters approved Proposition 36 in 2024, increasing penalties for repeat theft and drug offenses; the group said drug-possession arrests there rose by more than 14,000 in the following year. Oregon’s return to criminal penalties for simple possession was followed by a 39% increase—2,205 arrests—in non-marijuana drug-possession cases. The analysis also recorded a 188% jump in immigration-violation arrests, from 109,936 in 2024 to 316,304 in 2025. The period covered the first full year of President Donald Trump’s second term, when the administration expanded deportation efforts and supported local police participation in immigration enforcement. FWD.us said federal enforcement activity may have contributed to broader increases in arrests, but the figures alone do not establish what caused each change. The report relies on publicly available FBI and immigration arrest data. It does not show whether charges were later dropped or whether those arrested served time. An arrest can still carry serious consequences: FWD.us Executive Director Zoë Towns said it can mean missed work, lost income or housing trouble for individuals and their families. Towns described the rising arrest numbers as a troubling return to aggressive enforcement associated with earlier tough-on-crime eras. But the data also reflect differing state and local choices about how to respond to drug use, homelessness and public disorder. A 2024 Supreme Court ruling allowed cities to enforce bans on camping and sleeping in public spaces, while voters and lawmakers in some states have restored criminal penalties for drug possession. Insha Rahman, who leads the Vera Institute of Justice, said falling crime remains an important positive trend and pointed to treatment, diversion, violence-intervention and youth programs as alternatives to arrest. The competing policy questions are increasingly clear: how to keep streets safe while ensuring that enforcement is focused on serious threats and that arrests are not treated as proof of guilt. The FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the FWD.us analysis.