Less Than 14% Of ICE Arrests Have Violent Criminal Histories

One of the cornerstones of President Donald Trump’s second term has been his mass deportation campaign. Upon taking office, Trump bolstered recruitment for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and spent much of his first year deploying them on raids in cities far from the border. While Trump and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have continually defended these raids by saying ICE is detaining the violent criminals, an internal document obtained by CBS News reveals that less than 14% of ICE detainees have been convicted of a violent crime. 

According to CBS News, DHS has yet to publicly release the statistics found in the document, which go against their claim that ICE is predominantly targeting violent criminals. ICE arrests have increased dramatically under Trump, with nearly 400,000 people being detained last year alone. While ICE arrests tripled from the last year of the Biden administration, the number of detainees with criminal records dropped from 72% to 60%. Of that 60% with criminal records, the majority of convictions have been for nonviolent crimes.

From CBS News: 

The internal DHS document lays out the most serious charge or conviction for those arrested by ICE with criminal histories.

The document lists 2,100 arrests of those with homicide charges or convictions; 2,700 arrests of those with robbery offenses; and 5,400 arrests involving individuals charged with or convicted of sexual assault. Another 43,000 arrestees are listed as having assault charges or convictions. About 1,100 had kidnapping charges or convictions and 350 had arson offenses listed.

Added together, the number of ICE arrests involving individuals charged with or convicted of the aforementioned violent crimes represents around 13.9% of all arrests. 

The document also says ICE arrested 22,600 individuals with charges or convictions involving dangerous drugs, while another 6,100 had weapons offenses on their records. Nearly 30,000 of those arrested by ICE had been charged with or convicted with driving while under influence or intoxicated. Another 5,000 arrestees had burglary charges or convictions.

DHS has already tried to come out on defense and recontextualize what defines a nonviolent offense. “Drug trafficking, Distribution of child pornography, burglary, fraud, DUI, embezzlement, solicitation of a minor, human smuggling are all categorized as ‘nonviolent crimes,’” Tricia McLaughlin, a DHS spokesperson, said in a statement released in response to CBS’s story. 

This is the same Tricia McLaughlin who has tried to sell the narrative that Renee Good deserved to die because she endangered Jonathan Ross’ life by turning her car away from him, and that Alex Pretti posed a threat to ICE officers even though he was curled up on the ground and the gun he was carrying had already been stripped from him when ICE agents fired 10 shots in his back. So it’s kinda hard to take anything she has to say at face value. 

ICE’s indiscriminate arrests, along with the aforementioned shooting deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti has significantly turned public sentiment against ICE. At the start of Trump’s second term, his approval ratings on immigration were at 59%. In only one year, he has managed to shift views on ICE to majority disapproval, with 60% believing ICE is being “too tough” during its prolonged occupations of cities like Chicago, Los Angeles, and now Minneapolis. They’ve done such a bad job that calls to abolish ICE are going from a progressive stance to an increasingly moderate position. 

These numbers confirm what most folks not on the Trump train have been feeling for the last year: ICE isn’t going after “dangerous criminals,” just anyone who looks brown and might have an accent. Keep your head on a swivel, folks. 

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ICE Agents And Border Patrol Continue To Terrorize Minnesota