President Trump and his administration have consistently stated that their strict immigration policies are designed to identify and remove dangerous criminals, framing these efforts as a way to safeguard law-abiding American citizens.
Since beginning his reelection campaign, Trump has pledged to deport “the worst of the worst,” while blaming migrants for bringing “crime, drugs, misery and death” to the U.S.
As recently as last week, a DHS spokesperson reaffirmed that the immigration crackdown is mainly focused on criminal offenders and claimed that it is successfully detaining and removing them.
DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin stated in a , “Increased immigration enforcement targeting the worst of the worst is removing more and more criminal illegal aliens off our streets every day and is sending a clear message to anyone else in this country illegally: Self-deport or we will arrest and deport you.”
However, several studies indicate that immigrants are less prone to committing crimes than native-born Americans, and that undocumented immigration does not increase violent offenses. Furthermore, data reveals that over 70% of ICE detainees as of Thursday had no criminal convictions.
According to data from Sept. 25, there were 59,762 people in ICE detention. Of these, 17,007 had criminal convictions, 15,009 faced pending criminal charges, and the largest group—27,746 detainees—had neither convictions nor pending charges.
The proportion of detainees without criminal records appears to have increased significantly since Trump’s return to the White House in January. A report in June, citing nonpublic agency data, stated that 65% of individuals processed by ICE since the start of fiscal year 2025 (beginning in October 2024) had no criminal convictions, while 53% of those convicted were found guilty of nonviolent offenses, compared to 6.9% convicted of violent crimes.
The data appears to contradict the Administration’s claim that it has prioritized the “worst” criminals while deporting tens of thousands and detaining many others. By the end of last month, the number of deportations was approaching . Last week, DHS announced that “2 million illegal aliens have been removed or have self-deported” since Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20, stating that the Administration was on track to “shatter historic records and deport nearly 600,000” by the end of the year.
In addition to accelerating deportations, Trump has recently targeted several major cities in his efforts to combat both crime and immigration, deploying troops to , , and while threatening to do the same elsewhere. He has also intensified immigration enforcement operations in , and sought to challenge sanctuary city policies that limit local law enforcement’s cooperation with federal immigration authorities.
While Trump has repeatedly highlighted violent crime in these cities amid the deployments and threatened further deployments, data indicates that crime rates are already decreasing in cities like and Portland after rising during the COVID-19 pandemic.
