Immigrants accused of homicide are a tiny fraction of ICE arrests
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ICE agents apprehend an undocumented immigrant in an early morning raid in Los Angles in 2022. Photo: Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
Immigrants arrested for homicides accounted for less than 1% of "at-large" arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement over the last six years, an Axios review found.
Why it matters: President-elect Trump has vowed to launch the "largest deportation of criminals in American history" — often focusing on the slaying of college student Laken Riley by an undocumented immigrant — but data shows crimes like homicide and sexual assault feature in only a small fraction of ICE arrests.
By the numbers: An Axios review of data for nearly 180,000 ICE at-large arrests broken down by criminal convictions from October 1, 2017 through Sept. 30, 2023 found:
- The largest numbers concerned immigration-related offenses (16%); driving under the influence (15%); dangerous drugs (15%), assault (9%) and traffic offenses (9%).
- 3% of the crimes were larceny, 1.7% sexual assault and .7% homicide.
- ICE at-large arrests are those made in public settings as opposed to when ICE picks up someone who's already in jail or prison.
Overall, ICE figures released earlier this year said there have been more than 425,000 noncitizen immigrants with criminal convictions in the past 40 years or more.
- About 13,100 — or 3% — were convicted of homicide, while 15,811 (3.7%) were convicted of sexual assault.
- Many are imprisoned in federal, state or local facilities and may enter deportation proceedings after serving their sentences.
Trump transition spokesperson Karoline Leavitt, reached for comment by Axios, didn't address the disparity in the ICE arrest data and Trump's claims about immigrant crime.
- In a statement, Leavitt said Trump will marshal all resources for "the largest deportation operation of illegal criminals, drug dealers, and human traffickers in American history."
Reality check: The federal government has prioritized deporting immigrants with criminal records since the Obama administration, Amy Maldonado, an immigration lawyer in Michigan, tells Axios.
- "What Trump is proposing is nothing new. We've never let murderers and rapists just roam the streets."
- "They're lying. This is just an excuse for mass deportations," Maldonado says.
The big picture: Study after study has indicated that immigrants — those in the U.S. legally or without authorization — commit crimes at lower rates than U.S. citizens.
- There are roughly 24.5 million total noncitizen immigrants in the U.S., according to the Pew Research Center. About 11 million of them don't have legal status.
