Less than 14% of those arrested by ICE in the last year had violent criminal records, analysis finds

A new internal Department of Homeland Security analysis obtained by CBS News confirms that the share of immigrants with violent criminal histories arrested and targeted for deportation by the Trump administration is comparatively lower than the shares of detainees with nonviolent criminal histories or no arrest history.

The document, reported Monday, found that less than 14 percent of immigrants arrested by ICE, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, and other immigration enforcement over the first year of Donald Trump’s second presidency had charges or convictions for violent criminal offenses.

It’s the first direct confirmation from DHS itself that the agency’s efforts to prioritize the targeting of such individuals (as Trump promised during his 2024 campaign and throughout 2025) has been a failure, and instead show that the president’s mass deportation program is affecting undocumented immigrants of all stripes.

Despite instances from figures in the White House, such as Stephen Miller, to the contrary, the president did not campaign on targeting all undocumented immigrants for deportation. A focus on immigrants with violent criminal histories was a major focus of his campaign, and led to the passage of the Laken Riley Act in early 2025, with support from some Democrats who have been open to efforts to enhance border security and target those with criminal backgrounds.

"On day one, I will launch the largest deportation program of criminals in the history of America,” Trump said at his Madison Square Garden rally in October of 2024.

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Miller and others have argued that such a definition logically includes every undocumented American, because crossing the border illegally is a federal crime. But many swept up in the mass deportation machine fueled by the Trump administration are in the country for other reasons, including visa overstays and in some cases having been brought to the country as children.

DHS officials have also notably pushed back against the assertion that the administration is not prioritizing violent criminals in statements that seem to contrast sharply with the data reported Monday by CBS News.

“Despite what the media and Democrats claim, 70 percent of all ICE arrests are of illegal aliens convicted or charged with a crime in the U.S.,” DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin claimed in November. “This statistic doesn’t even include the illegal aliens we arrest who are convicted of crimes in their home counties, foreign fugitives, and gang members who just lack a rap sheet in the U.S.”

The DHS figures reported by CBS include immigrants picked up by immigration authorities from jails and prisons, and do not reflect merely those detained in door-to-door operations or raids of businesses.

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The data closely mirrors an independent analysis conducted by The New York Times last year, which found that just 7 percent of immigrants detained or arrested by ICE and its associated agencies between January and October of 2025 had convictions for violent criminal offenses.

Other analyses showed that tens of thousands of immigrants with no criminal backgrounds at all were arrested last year.

President Donald Trump has shifted his tone on the enforcement operations conducted by ICE and DHS in recent weeks as a nationwide backlash occurred in the wake of two fatal shootings of Americans by ICE and Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis, where a massive enforcement surge is underway.

The White House removed ICE’s top commander, Greg Bovino, from his post in Minneapolis after tensions mounted across the country in response to the second shooting, replacing him with Trump’s own border czar, Tom Homan. The administration then announced it was pulling 700 officers out of the city.

Trump, in an interview, admitted that the mass deportation system required a shift in tactics, though he cautioned that federal agents would still be “tough” with immigrants and agencies have continued to insist that anyone who obstructs or interferes with immigration enforcement operations will be prosecuted.

Videos from across the country have shown Americans yelling, heckling and blowing whistles at ICE and other immigration authorities conducting raids, which some conservatives have said should be met with criminal charges.