Less than 10% of immigrants taken into ICE custody in recent months had serious criminal convictions, internal data shows

CNN

6 hours ago

As the Trump administration has ramped up raids in Los Angeles and around the country, top officials have highlighted the capture of immigrants convicted of crimes like murder, assault and rape — describing them as 'barbaric' criminals who 'reigned terror' on American communities.
But internal government documents obtained by CNN show that only a fraction of migrants booked into Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody since October have been convicted of serious violent or sexual crimes.
More than 75% of people booked into ICE custody in fiscal year 2025 had no criminal conviction other than an immigration or traffic-related offense, according to ICE records from October through the end of May. And less than 10% were convicted of serious crimes like murder, assault, robbery or rape.
Public ICE data released by the administration shows that most immigrants currently in the agency's custody do not have a prior criminal conviction. But the internal data reviewed by CNN goes deeper, making clear that even among those convicted of crimes, a substantial percentage faced only relatively minor charges.
The internal data covers the more than 185,000 immigrants who have been booked into ICE custody during the last months of the Biden administration and first months of the Trump administration, including those detained by ICE agents and those detained by Customs and Border Protection who were then placed in ICE custody.
In a statement, the Department of Homeland Security challenged the premise of CNN's questions and referenced data limited to ICE arrests in a shorter timeframe.
DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said ICE targets 'the worst of the worst—including gang members, murderers, and rapists. In President Trump's first 100 days, 75% of ICE arrests were criminal illegal aliens with convictions or pending charges.'
McLaughlin did not respond to a request to clarify the nature of those convictions or pending charges.
The records show a stark contrast with the Trump administration's public messaging. In the last month, almost all of the detained or deported immigrants named or specifically identified in ICE or DHS press releases were convicted or accused of crimes aside from immigration violations. Nearly two thirds were characterized as convicted or accused of serious crimes.
The administration's focus on alleged immigrant criminals has sharpened this month as federal immigration agents deployed to Los Angeles and President Donald Trump mobilized the California National Guard and US Marines to counter anti-ICE protests.
'In L.A., what we have been going after is the worst of the worst,' Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said last week on Fox News. 'They are murderers. They are people who have been perpetuating assault and trafficking human beings.'
Trump won reelection after campaigning on mass deportations, and his administration has aggressively pushed agencies across the government to fulfill his promises. The White House has expressed a desire to triple the number of daily immigration arrests, and authorities have been conducting large-scale raids at worksites like meat plants and construction projects. Trump on Truth Social over the weekend ordered ICE agents to 'do all in their power to achieve the very important goal of delivering the single largest Mass Deportation Program in History.'
Still, the majority of cases DHS has publicly detailed are immigrants with serious rap sheets. In one news release last week identifying immigrants detained in recent Los Angeles ICE operations, 10 of the 11 named and pictured were described as having a criminal history of murder, assault, robbery, sexual assault, weapons charges or drug trafficking.
On the ground in L.A., by contrast, immigrant advocates say they have heard of more workers and longtime residents with no prior arrests or convictions getting detained in ICE operations this month.
'We are seeing huge amounts of people with no prior contact with the criminal or immigration system picked up,' said Eva Bitran, the director of immigrants' rights for the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California. 'It is very contrary to the story that the secretary is telling.'
Some Republicans have also begun demanding a clearer accounting from the Trump administration on who is being detained and deported. On Wednesday, six GOP House members of the Congressional Hispanic Conference sent a letter to ICE asking for a breakdown of how many deportations since January included convicted criminals and those tied to gangs.
'Every minute that we spend pursuing an individual with a clean record is a minute less that we dedicate to apprehending terrorists or cartel operatives,' said the letter signed by Reps. Tony Gonzales and Monica De La Cruz of Texas, among others. 'We stand by President Trump to ensure our border security is restored. However, in order to truly claim success, we need to give absolute priority to every violent offender and convicted criminal illegal alien present in our nation. Diverting limited resources to other objectives puts our national security at risk.'
Of the roughly 185,000 immigrants who have been booked into ICE custody this fiscal year detailed in the data reviewed by CNN, about 71,000 were detained by CBP agents, who primarily focus on people crossing US borders. Public ICE data shows that most of the immigrants currently detained by CBP do not have any criminal history, possibly because many have not been in the US previously.
Sui Chung, the executive director of Americans for Immigrant Justice, a nonprofit law firm that has been filing lawsuits on behalf of immigrants, said most of the people her group represents have no criminal history.
'Right now, immigrants have been portrayed as dangers to community, as drains on society, as criminals, rapists, terrorists, and these are inaccurate statements,' Chung said. 'It's a really dangerous narrative for us to set forth when this is a country built on immigration.'
Many of those 'swept up in this endless loop' of immigration detention and deportation are detained at 'minor traffic stops or yearly ICE check-ins and have posed no danger to our communities for years,' Chung said.
The data reviewed by CNN shows that more than 12,700 people have been booked into ICE custody this fiscal year whose most serious criminal conviction was a traffic offense – the second highest category of convictions after immigration-related charges. It's unclear whether that includes people convicted of driving under the influence – the data also says that 234 people were convicted of 'liquor' related offenses.
According to the data, about 40,000 of those booked into ICE custody had a pending criminal charge, although there was no description of the charge for nearly all of those cases. It's unclear if most of those pending charges are immigration-related or not.
The data typically includes charges filed abroad in countries that have an agreement with DHS to share criminal history information, a former senior ICE official said.
The rate of people in ICE custody without a criminal conviction was higher in the two previous years during the Biden administration than it is so far in fiscal year 2025, according to the agency's data. But that appears to be largely because there were far more immigrants detained at the border by CBP and then sent to ICE custody during the Biden years.
During 2024, CBP was the arresting agency for an average of nearly 16,000 people a month who came into ICE custody, compared to nearly 4,500 people a month since Trump took office. And in 2024, ICE detained an average of about 7,800 people a month – a number that has risen since Trump returned to the presidency and reached more than 23,500 in May.
Bitran, of the ACLU, said her group had heard of various immigrants caught up in ICE raids in the Los Angeles area in recent days who had no criminal history – including a mother who's lived in the US for 26 years and a father of three US citizen children who has a pregnant wife.
By focusing its public messaging on the far smaller number of violent criminals detained, Bitran argued, the administration is 'painting an alternate reality.'