Trump drives surge in Ice detentions of those with no criminal record despite stated priorities
The latest available data, released by Ice last Friday, appears to contradict Trump administration officials' frequent assertions that the agency is prioritizing the pursuit of criminals in its immigration enforcement operations.
'Our number one concern is violent criminals,' Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which houses Ice, said on TV in an interview with PBS last week.
In mid-June, Ice data shows there were more than 11,700 people in immigration detention who had been arrested by Ice despite having no track record of being charged with or convicted of a crime. That represents a staggering 1,271% increase from data released on those in immigration detention immediately before the start of Trump's second term.
Being undocumented in the US is a civil infraction, not a criminal offense. But the Trump administration has continued to push the narrative that they are targeting 'criminal aliens' in their push to deport undocumented immigrants, conflating those who are only undocumented with those with criminal histories. Those seeking to stay in the US, through legal means, have also been targeted.
Border czar Tom Homan has admitted the administration has decided that people without criminal records are viable to be rounded up by Ice.
'[Does] everyone that has been arrested by Ice agents have a criminal record like those you've described?' an MSNBC host asked Homan.
'Absolutely not,' he replied.
But the overarching narrative from homeland security officials has been that the administration is targeting 'criminal illegal aliens'.
According to the most recent data released by the government, nearly a third of all people arrested by Ice and booked into immigration detention had no criminal history.
Although detainees with criminal records and with pending criminal charges still make up the majority of people arrested by Ice, the number of people with no criminal record continues to rise disproportionately.
As of 15 June, there were just more than 14,500 people, who had been arrested by Ice, in the detention network with a criminal record – felony or misdemeanor – and just more than 13,000 with pending criminal charges but no convictions.
The government is arresting immigrants with criminal records, but past data shows that most crimes were misdemeanors, not violent felonies as the administration has claimed. Detailed statistics on immigration arrestees are not available for 2025, but between October 2022 and November 2024 in the Biden administration, 78% of people arrested by the agency had a misdemeanor conviction or no conviction at all. The Trump administration has frequently pushed the narrative that many of the people arrested by Ice have been 'violent' offenders.
The recent data also suggests that the current number of immigrants detained in Ice's detention facility network is the highest it has ever been in history, according to an analysis published by Austin Kocher, an assistant research professor at Syracuse University who tracks Ice enforcement.
Ice facilities throughout the country on paper can accommodate 41,500 people but are currently holding more than 56,000.
Statistics from early 1 June, previously reported on by the Guardian, demonstrated an 807% increase in arrests of people without criminal histories since before Donald Trump's second inauguration this January.
DHS's McLaughlin criticized the Guardian in an interview on PBS, when asked about the 807% number.
'I don't know where CNN or the Guardian are getting their data, but I wouldn't say that those are exactly nonpartisan outlets. I don't really rely on them for facts or analysis,' McLaughlin said. 'I do rely on the Department of Homeland Security and our career civil servants, who are giving us this data.'
For the 14 June story and this story, the Guardian analyzed data from Ice, which is required to disclose detention statistics. The agency updates a spreadsheet every few weeks with new data and the Guardian compared the most recent data released with older government data that had been gathered by the Vera Institute of Justice, on order to calculate detention trends.
DHS did not respond to a request for comment before publication. McLaughlin did not respond to a request for an interview before publication.
The dramatic surge in the detention of immigrants with no criminal history rose exponentially after a tense meeting on 21 May between Trump administration officials and top Ice officials. In a heated atmosphere, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller and DHS secretary Kristi Noem ordered Ice officials to arrest many more immigrants, demanding a target of 3,000 arrests a day, or a million per year.
It has not been confirmed exactly what the daily arrest rate had been from January 20 to May 20 but it is widely believed to have been well below that new target figure, and far from keeping pace with apprehensions under the Biden administration when many more unauthorized migrants were taken into custody by Customs and Border Protection, typically at the US-Mexico border.
As the Guardian previously revealed, on 31 May, top Ice managers instructed officers throughout the country to find imaginative ways to increase arrests.
Pressure from above has led to many controversial Ice raids and many more arrests, sparking protests across the country. The high figures have resulted in an overcrowded and saturated detention network.
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