President Donald Trump has pledged to deport 鈥渢he worst of the worst.鈥 He frequently speaks at public appearances about the countless 鈥渄angerous criminals鈥 鈥 among them murderers, rapists and child predators 鈥 from around the world he says entered the U.S. illegally under the Biden administration. He promises to expel millions of migrants in the largest deportation program in American history to protect law-abiding citizens from the violent threats he says they pose.
But government data around ongoing detentions tells a different story.
There has been an by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement since Trump began his second term, with across the country. Yet the majority of people currently detained by ICE have no criminal convictions. Of those who do, relatively few have been convicted of high-level crimes 鈥 a stark contrast to the chilling nightmare Trump describes to support his border security agenda.
鈥淭here's a deep disconnect between the rhetoric and the reality,鈥 said Ahilan Arulanantham, co-faculty director of the UCLA Law School's Center for Immigration Law and Policy. 鈥淭his administration, and also in the prior Trump administration, they consistently claim to be going after the worst of the worst and just talk about immigration enforcement as though it is all about going after violent, dangerous people with extensive criminal histories. And yet overwhelmingly, it's people they're targeting for arrest who have no criminal history of any kind.鈥
The latest show that as of June 29, there were 57,861 people detained by ICE, 41,495 鈥 71.7% 鈥 of whom had no criminal convictions. That includes 14,318 people with pending criminal charges and 27,177 who are , but have no known criminal convictions or pending criminal charges.
Each detainee is assigned a threat level by ICE on a scale of 1 to 3, with one being the highest. Those without a criminal record are classified as having 鈥渘o ICE threat level.鈥 As of June 23, the latest data available, 84% of people detained at 201 facilities nationwide were not given a threat level. Another 7% had been graded as a level 1 threat, 4% were level 2 and 5% were level 3.
鈥淧resident Trump has justified this immigration agenda in part by making false claims that migrants are driving violent crime in the United States, and that's just simply not true,鈥 said Lauren-Brooke Eisen, senior director of the justice program at the Brennan Center for Justice. 鈥淭here's no research and evidence that supports his claims.鈥
Tricia McLaughlin, an assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security, called the assessment that ICE isn't targeting immigrants with a criminal record 鈥渇alse" and said that DHS Secretary Kristi Noem has directed ICE 鈥渢o target the worst of the worst鈥攊ncluding gang members, murderers, and rapists.鈥 She counted detainees with convictions, as well as those with pending charges, as 鈥渃riminal illegal aliens.鈥
Nonpublic data shows that as of June 14, 65% of the more than 204,000 people processed into the system by ICE since the start of fiscal year 2025, which began Oct. 1, 2024, had no criminal convictions. Of those with convictions, only 6.9% had committed a violent crime, while 53% had committed nonviolent crimes that fell into three main categories 鈥 immigration, traffic, or vice crimes.
shot up at the end of May after White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller of 3,000 arrests a day, up from 650 a day in the first five months of Trump鈥檚 second term. ICE arrested nearly 30% more people in May than in April, according to the , or TRAC. That number rose again in June, by another 28%.
The Cato Institute found that between Feb. 8 and May 17, the daily average of 鈥渘oncriminals鈥 processed into the system ranged from 421 to 454. In the following two weeks at the end of May, that number rose to 678 and then rose to 927 in the period from June 1 through 14.
鈥淲hat you're seeing is this huge increase in funding to detain people, remove people, enforce immigration laws," Eisen said. "And what we're seeing is that a lot of these people back to sort of the original question you asked, these are not people who are dangerous.鈥
Abigail Jackson, a White House spokesperson, said the administration is intensely focused on rooting out unvetted criminals who are in the country illegally.
鈥淛ust this week, the Administration conducted a successful operation rescuing children from labor exploitation at a marijuana facility in California, and continued arresting the worst of the worst 鈥 including murderers, pedophiles, gang members, and rapists,鈥 she wrote in an email. "Any suggestion that the Administration is not laser focused on these dangerous criminals is flat out wrong.鈥
While most ICE detainees are not convicted criminals, there are detainees who have committed serious crimes. On Friday, the administration on five high-level offenders who had been arrested.
During his campaign, Trump highlighted several cases where immigrants in the country illegally were arrested for horrific crimes. Among them: The killing of 22-year-old Laken Riley, a Georgia nursing student who was slain last year by a Venezuelan man in the U.S. illegally. Jose Ibarra was found guilty of murder and other crimes in Riley鈥檚 February 2024 killing and sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Ibarra is .
Trump in January the Laken Riley Act, the detention of unauthorized immigrants accused of theft and violent crimes.
, however, that immigrants are not driving violent crime in the U.S. and that they actually commit fewer crimes than native-born Americans. A 2023 working paper from the , for example, reported that immigrants for 150 years have had lower incarceration rates than those born in the U.S. In fact, the rates have declined since 1960 鈥 according to the paper, immigrants were 60% less likely to be incarcerated.
Experts say the false rhetoric coming out of the Trump administration creates real harm.
鈥淚t makes people in immigrant communities feel targeted and marginalized,鈥 Arulanantham said. 鈥淚t creates more political and social space for hate in all its forms, including hate crime against immigrant communities.鈥
Eisen noted that the impact extends to other communities as well.
鈥淎ll Americans should want safe and thriving communities and this idea that the president of the United States is making misleading statements about the truth and distorting reality is not the way to deliver public safety,鈥 she said.
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