ICE Data: One-third of arrests included people with no criminal histories
Data reported from a clearinghouse revealed that nearly one-third of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrests involved people with no prior arrests. The release came as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Trump administration continued deployments throughout the country, most recently targeting New Orleans, the Twin Cities and New York City.
Figures the Deportation Data Project released on Dec. 1 showed the government’s crackdown on immigration involved arresting 74,283 people who had no prior criminal convictions between Jan. 21 and Oct. 15. The data overshadowed the Trump administration’s sought-after goal of detaining — and later deporting — anyone who’s living in the country without authorization or has criminal convictions.
DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a Dec. 5 media release that the media reports are false, and that “70% of ICE arrests are of illegal aliens who have been charged or convicted of a crime in the U.S.” She did not provide any data to back up the claim. The data project showed that 36.5% of arrests were for people with criminal convictions. About 29.8% had pending criminal charges.
A total of 220,802 arrests have been made from Jan. 21 to Oct. 15.
The Deportation Data Project obtained arrest data from ICE as a result of a public records request. An analysis from The New York Times showed that targeted operations in Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Massachusetts and Illinois showed that an average of 67.5% arrests were of people with no criminal histories.
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The Deportation Data Project found that ICE arrested 74,283 people from Jan. 21 to Oct. 15 who had no criminal convictions.
Seemingly in response to the media reports, DHS unveiled its “Worst of the Worst” webpage, which details people the department has arrested since Trump’s inauguration. The department claimed those featured had criminal backgrounds involving homicides, assaults, drug trafficking and other charges.
“As the media whitewashes the facts, day in and day out, our brave men and women of ICE risk their lives for the American people,” McLaughlin said in the Monday release. “Americans don’t have to rely on the press for this information – with this transparent tool, they can see for themselves what public safety threats were lurking in their neighborhoods and communities.”
However, the Deportation Data Project’s numbers came from ICE. The website said it originated from a May 2024 Freedom of Information Act request that ICE didn’t respond to until the Center for Immigration Law and Policy filed a December 2024 lawsuit. That litigation compelled ICE to abide by the request in March, and subsequent updates twice in June and in late July.
Other detention, arrest data show ICE detaining people without records
Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s detention statistics for fiscal year 2026 revealed that 21,892 arrests out of a total 53,520 had no criminal records. The data accounted for arrests as of Nov. 30.
Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse tracked arrests with no criminal conviction, finding that 47,964 people as of Nov. 16 were arrested. It emphasized that detentions among this subset of people have increased by 96.9% since Sept. 21.
Cato Institute scholar David Bier had similar findings and learned that just 5% of people booked into an ICE detention facility had a violent crime conviction, but 73% had no prior convictions, or no conviction but had charges pending.
According to the Justice Department, crossing the U.S. border illegally is a federal misdemeanor that is punishable by at least a $50 fine.
“In its posts on this subject,” Bier wrote, “DHS and ICE often include people with pending criminal charges as ‘criminal arrests,’ even though these people have never been found guilty, and the charges are often minor and regularly dismissed. ICE is depriving these people of due process by arresting them prior to a conviction.”
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
