President Donald Trump has pledged to deport “the worst of the worst.” He often speaks at public appearances concerning the numerous “harmful criminals” — amongst them murderers, rapists and little one predators — from around the globe he says entered the U.S. illegally below the Biden administration. He guarantees to expel hundreds of thousands of migrants within the largest deportation program in American historical past to guard law-abiding residents from the violent threats he says they pose.
However authorities knowledge round ongoing detentions tells a special story.
There was an enhance of arrests by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement since Trump started his second time period, with reviews of raids throughout the nation. But the vast majority of individuals at present detained by ICE haven’t any felony convictions. Of those that do, comparatively few have been convicted of high-level crimes — a stark distinction to the chilling nightmare Trump describes to assist his border safety agenda.
“There’s a deep disconnect between the rhetoric and the fact,” mentioned Ahilan Arulanantham, co-faculty director of the UCLA Legislation Faculty’s Heart for Immigration Legislation and Coverage. “This administration, and likewise within the prior Trump administration, they constantly declare to be going after the worst of the worst and simply speak about immigration enforcement as if it’s all about going after violent, harmful individuals with in depth felony histories. And but overwhelmingly, it’s individuals they’re focusing on for arrest who haven’t any felony historical past of any sort.”
A have a look at the numbers
The newest ICE statistics present that as of June 29, there have been 57,861 individuals detained by ICE, 41,495 — 71.7% — of whom had no felony convictions. That features 14,318 individuals with pending felony costs and 27,177 who’re topic to immigration enforcement, however haven’t any recognized felony convictions or pending felony costs.
Every detainee is assigned a risk degree by ICE on a scale of 1 to three, with one being the very best. These with out a felony report are labeled as having “no ICE risk degree.” As of June 23, the newest knowledge obtainable, 84% of individuals detained at 201 amenities nationwide weren’t given a risk degree. One other 7% had been graded as a degree 1 risk, 4% had been degree 2 and 5% had been degree 3.
“President Trump has justified this immigration agenda partly by making false claims that migrants are driving violent crime in america, and that’s simply merely not true,” mentioned Lauren-Brooke Eisen, senior director of the justice program on the Brennan Heart for Justice. “There’s no analysis and proof that helps his claims.”
Tricia McLaughlin, an assistant secretary on the Division of Homeland Safety, known as the evaluation that ICE isn’t focusing on immigrants with a felony report “false” and mentioned that DHS Secretary Kristi Noem has directed ICE “to focus on the worst of the worst—together with gang members, murderers, and rapists.” She counted detainees with convictions, in addition to these with pending costs, as “felony unlawful aliens.”
Nonpublic knowledge obtained by the Cato Institute reveals that as of June 14, 65% of the greater than 204,000 individuals processed into the system by ICE because the begin of fiscal 12 months 2025, which started Oct. 1, 2024, had no felony convictions. Of these with convictions, solely 6.9% had dedicated a violent crime, whereas 53% had dedicated nonviolent crimes that fell into three principal classes — immigration, visitors, or vice crimes.
Whole ICE arrests shot up on the finish of Might after White Home Deputy Chief of Employees Stephen Miller gave the company a quota of three,000 arrests a day, up from 650 a day within the first 5 months of Trump’s second time period. ICE arrested almost 30% extra individuals in Might than in April, in line with the Transactional Data Clearinghouse, or TRAC. That quantity rose once more in June, by one other 28%.
The Cato Institute discovered that between Feb. 8 and Might 17, the day by day common of “noncriminals” processed into the system ranged from 421 to 454. Within the following two weeks on the finish of Might, that quantity rose to 678 after which rose to 927 within the interval from June 1 via 14.
“What you’re seeing is that this enormous enhance in funding to detain individuals, take away individuals, implement immigration legal guidelines,” Eisen mentioned. “And what we’re seeing is that a number of these individuals again to kind of the unique query you requested, these usually are not people who find themselves harmful.”
Administration says focus is on harmful criminals
Abigail Jackson, a White Home spokesperson, mentioned the administration is very centered on rooting out unvetted criminals who’re within the nation illegally.
“Simply this week, the Administration performed a profitable operation rescuing kids from labor exploitation at a marijuana facility in California, and continued arresting the worst of the worst – together with murderers, pedophiles, gang members, and rapists,” she wrote in an e mail. “Any suggestion that the Administration just isn’t laser centered on these harmful criminals is flat out mistaken.”
Whereas most ICE detainees usually are not convicted criminals, there are detainees who’ve dedicated critical crimes. On Friday, the administration launched data on 5 high-level offenders who had been arrested.
Throughout his marketing campaign, Trump highlighted a number of circumstances the place immigrants within the nation illegally had been arrested for horrific crimes. Amongst them: The killing of 22-year-old Laken Riley, a Georgia nursing scholar who was slain final 12 months by a Venezuelan man within the U.S. illegally. Jose Ibarra was discovered responsible of homicide and different crimes in Riley’s February 2024 killing and sentenced him to life in jail with out the potential of parole. Ibarra is searching for a brand new trial.
Trump in January signed into regulation the Laken Riley Act, which requires the detention of unauthorized immigrants accused of theft and violent crimes.
Immigrants usually are not driving violent crime in US, research discover
Analysis has constantly discovered, nevertheless, that immigrants usually are not driving violent crime within the U.S. and that they really commit fewer crimes than native-born Individuals. A 2023 working paper from the Nationwide Bureau of Financial Analysis, for instance, reported that immigrants for 150 years have had decrease incarceration charges than these born within the U.S. In reality, the charges have declined since 1960 — in line with the paper, immigrants had been 60% much less more likely to be incarcerated.
Specialists say the false rhetoric popping out of the Trump administration creates actual hurt.
“It makes individuals in immigrant communities really feel focused and marginalized,” Arulanantham mentioned. “It creates extra political and social area for hate in all its kinds, together with hate crime in opposition to immigrant communities.”
Eisen famous that the affect extends to different communities as nicely.
“All Individuals ought to need secure and thriving communities and this concept that the president of america is making deceptive statements concerning the reality and distorting actuality just isn’t the best way to ship public security,” she mentioned.
