The most effective escalation of President Trump's mass deportation campaign happened quietly. Unlike earlier high-profile raids that drew thousands of protesters into the streets of Chicago, Los Angeles and Minneapolis, the surge in arrests in June, July and August was captured mostly by grainy security camera footage, through cracked blinds and from behind closed doors.

Arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement this summer soared to record highs — with 43,000 in June, more than 49,000 in July and nearly 51,000 in August — as officials cut or narrowed the pathways to legal residency and expanded the pool of people eligible for deportation. Federal agents appeared in nearly every corner of daily life, carrying out operations at hospitals and airports, outside suburban schools and along rural construction sites and truck stops.

In Republican-led states like Texas and Florida, where the swell was strongest, they amplified their reach through partnerships with sheriffs and state highway patrol officers. David Bier, director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute, said the local partnerships, an infusion of federal dollars and new technology had made the dragnet so decentralized that it had attracted less attention.

Roger Hansen, 83, owner of the Little Big Load Laundromat in Madison, Wis., said federal agents took five people from two of his locations in June. He said business dropped roughly 50 percent the next day and had not recovered.