All undocumented immigrants are "criminals," Trump administration says

The big picture: Asked by a reporter how many of the 3,500 immigrants arrested since Trump took office have criminal records, Leavitt said, "all of them because they illegally broke our nation's laws."

• "I know the last administration didn't see it that way, so it's a big culture shift in our nation to view someone who breaks our immigration laws as a criminal, but that's exactly what they are."
• Leavitt declined to say if all the undocumented immigrants had criminal records.

Reality check: There is no law making it a crime to live in the U.S. as an undocumented immigrant. Instead, the law treats it as a civil violation.

• Those detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) away from the U.S.-Mexico border have a right to a hearing with an immigration judge to determine if they can stay in the U.S. or not.
• Less than 0.5% of the 1.8 million cases in immigration courts during the past fiscal year — involving about 8,400 people — included deportation orders for alleged crimes other than entering the U.S. illegally, an Axios review of government data found.

State of play: President Trump said in his inauguration speech that his administration would quickly deport "millions and millions" of "illegal aliens" with criminal records. Those millions don't exist.

• In the past 40 years, federal officials have documented about 425,000 noncitizens with criminal convictions on the ICE's "non-detained docket."
• About 13,100 of those were convicted of homicides and are imprisoned in the U.S. They'll have deportation hearings after serving their sentences.

During the campaign, Trump falsely said undocumented immigrants were responsible for rising crime (when data showed crime was going down).

To deport millions of "criminals," Trump would have to consider all undocumented immigrants as criminals — something it appears to be doing with Leavitt's latest comments.

• Leavitt said "rapists" and "murderers" should be ICE's priority, but that doesn't mean others are off the table.

Yes, but: The federal government, since the Clinton administration, has always prioritized deporting immigrants convicted of violent crimes after they serve their sentences.

• Immigrants convicted of violent crimes can't just immediately be deported and must go through the state or federal court system.
• Very rarely does ICE allow undocumented immigrants with convictions for dangerous felonies to return to the public after serving time. Those immigrants usually go through deportation proceedings after serving their sentences.

Zoom in: Immigrants arrested in homicides accounted for less than 1% of "at-large" arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) over the last six years, an Axios review found.

• At-large arrests are those made in public settings, as opposed to when ICE agents pick up someone who's already behind bars.

Between the lines: Karen Tumlin, director of the immigrant legal advocacy group Justice Action Center, predicted to Axios that the Trump administration would call all undocumented immigrants "criminals" as an excuse to separate families and go after non-violent immigrants.

• The estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. are largely agricultural, construction and service workers, students and others who have no criminal backgrounds, according to legal specialists and an Axios review of federal immigration data.

Study after study has indicated that immigrants — those in the U.S. legally, and those who aren't — commit crimes at lower rates than U.S. citizens.

Further reading: Why Trump won't be deporting "millions" of criminals