When the second Trump administration rolled out its immigration agenda, officials said large-scale deportations would target criminals they described as the “worst of the worst.”
Internal numbers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) suggest something very different. According to nonpublic ICE data obtained by the Cato Institute, nearly three-quarters of people arrested by ICE had no criminal conviction at all.
A separate investigation by CBS News reached a similar conclusion. It found that the number of ICE detainees with no criminal record has exploded since the start of the second Trump administration, increasing by more than 2,000%.
ICE’s own public database, released under a transparency requirement from Congress, shows the agency held 65,135 people in detention facilities nationwide — the highest total the agency has ever publicly reported.
Nearly half of those in custody as of Nov. 16 had no criminal charges or convictions in the United States. Instead, they were being detained for civil immigration violations, such as unauthorized entry or overstaying a visa.
ICE reported holding almost 31,000 people with no criminal charges, compared with more than 34,000 who had either a conviction or a pending charge — without specifying how serious those offenses were or what they involved.
CBS News reported that arrests of people with no criminal record have surged over the course of the year. Between Jan. 26 and Nov. 16, arrests of individuals without criminal convictions or charges rose by 2,143%, highlighting how many of those swept up under the administration’s hardline approach are undocumented immigrants with no criminal history.
The Cato Institute’s analysis mirrored those findings. Its review of ICE records showed that 70% of people deported by the Trump administration had no criminal conviction, and 43% had neither a conviction nor a pending criminal charge.
“President Trump’s deportation agenda does not match the campaign promises he made or the rhetoric from his officials,” the report concluded. It also noted that Trump has already acknowledged that deportations are hurting the economy by removing needed workers, and argued that the current strategy diverts resources away from genuine public-safety threats, whether involving immigrants or U.S. citizens. The report urged ICE to refocus on serious public-safety concerns.
Despite these findings, administration officials continue to claim that most people arrested by ICE and other federal immigration agents have criminal records.
Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin told CBS News that the Trump administration remains focused on what it considers “the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens.”
She added that people categorized as noncriminals in ICE data may have warrants or criminal histories outside the United States or may be considered national security risks. DHS has not released data showing how many detainees fall into those categories.
