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A large majority of people arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement have criminal convictions or pending criminal charges, according to new data released by the Department of Homeland Security during the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
Between Jan. 20 and Dec. 11, federal authorities arrested about 595,000 people in the country illegally, DHS said. Of those, roughly 70 percent, about 416,000 individuals, had “criminal convictions or pending criminal charges just in the U.S.,” an ICE spokesperson said in a statement, the Washington Examiner reported.
ICE said the figure does not include people wanted for crimes in other countries or those tied to international crime or terrorism.
“This statistic doesn’t account for those wanted for violent crimes in their home country or another country, INTERPOL notices, human rights abusers, gang members, terrorists, etc. The list goes on,” the spokesperson said.
ICE officials pointed to arrests such as Antonio Israel Lazo-Quintanilla, whose only known U.S. offense was driving without a license, but who is wanted in El Salvador for aggravated homicide, extortion, drug offenses and other crimes. In another case, ICE arrested Uzbek citizen Akhror Bozorov, who had no U.S. criminal record but was wanted in his home country for alleged involvement with a terrorist organization.
The data come as Democrats and immigrant rights groups continue to criticize ICE for arresting people whose only known violation is entering or living in the country illegally.
In his Jan. 20 inaugural address, President Donald Trump said he would “begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens to the places from which they came.” President Trump and Vice President JD Vance have estimated that between 500,000 and 1 million people in the country illegally have criminal records.
The administration has also said it aims to deport people who already have final removal orders but have not yet been physically removed from the country. About 1.5 million people had been ordered deported but remained in the United States, according to recent reports.
