ICE's own data — including testimony from Acting Director Todd Lyons before Congress on April 16, 2026 — shows that Trump's repeated claim of deporting the “worst of the worst” is contradicted by the agency's own enforcement numbers.
Of 457,000 total arrests since January 20, 2026, 176,000 (39%) had no criminal records whatsoever — roughly 405 people arrested daily with no criminal history. Only approximately 14% had violent criminal records, according to an internal DHS document obtained by CBS News. Only 1.9% (~7,500) involved individuals accused of gang membership. Only about 2% faced homicide or sexual assault charges.
The percentage of arrests involving people with no criminal record has been increasing over time: 14.7% in February 2025, 34.6% in September 2025, 42.7% in January 2026. The Cato Institute found 73% of ICE detainees have no criminal convictions at all, and only 5% have violent convictions.
ICE's “criminal histories” designation is misleading — it includes immigration-only offenses (unlawful entry/re-entry), low-level traffic violations, and charges that never resulted in conviction. When the Cato Institute published its analysis, DHS publicly lied about the report — and Cato published a point-by-point rebuttal proving the lie with new data.
FactCheck.org confirmed: “As ICE Arrests Increased, a Higher Portion Had No U.S. Criminal Record.” Lyons announced his resignation from ICE the same day he testified.
Update (October 22, 2026): a Migration Policy Institute fact sheet by Marc Rosenblum, the former head of DHS's statistics office, built from FOIA data and the Deportation Data Project, counts about 980,000 deportations between January 20, 2025 and July 31, 2026, including 340,000 border turnarounds, and “about 190,000 deportations of convicted criminals,” or “20 percent of the 980,000 total deportations during that period.” The most common convictions were illegal entry or re-entry (23 percent of criminal removals) and traffic offenses including DUI. About 280,000 deportations were of people with no conviction and more than two years in the United States. The administration has claimed 1.2 million deportations; the AP reported the “discrepancy could not immediately be reconciled.” See The Official Who Built DHS's Immigration Transparency Quits, Citing a 'War on Immigrants,' a 'War on Facts,' and 'Brazen Corruption'.