Fact check: How many deportations in 2025 were due to minor offenses or misdemeanors?

1. What the headline claims say — Thousands removed for minor infractions and traffic tickets

Analyses from nonprofit and news outlets claim that a substantial share of 2025 removals involved minor offenses, traffic violations, or no convictions at all. The Marshall Project counted over 1,800 deportations tied to traffic violations through mid‑2025 and reported that the monthly number of deportations where the most serious conviction was a traffic ticket more than tripled over six months, reaching almost 600 in May ^[1]. ABC News’ review of ICE arrest data found that only 30% of those arrested had criminal convictions while 44% had no criminal history, signaling a shift toward detaining and removing people for lesser or noncriminal matters ^[3]. These counts present a clear pattern: enforcement priorities shifted to include nonviolent, low‑level cases in 2025.

2. What the agency data confirm — increase in nonviolent and non‑convicted detainees, but not a neat count

ICE’s aggregate numbers show rising arrest, detention, and removal figures but do not neatly categorize removals by misdemeanor versus felony across a full year, which creates an incomplete public picture. Reporting notes that a majority of individuals booked lacked violent convictions and that large shares were processed for immigration, traffic, or nonviolent vice crimes—categories that often include misdemeanors ^{[2] [4]}. The same reporting emphasizes that while the proportion of detainees with criminal convictions fell, ICE’s public datasets as cited do not directly yield a single definitive number for removals exclusively due to misdemeanors, a gap that forces reliance on secondary counts and sampling methods ^[2].

3. Reconciling the counts — how analysts derive the “thousands” figure

Independent analyses combine ICE case files, monthly removals tallies, and conviction‑type coding to estimate removals for minor offenses. The Marshall Project and allied analyses summed reported deportations where the recorded most‑serious conviction was a traffic violation or where no conviction existed, arriving at figures like 1,800+ traffic‑violation removals and two‑thirds of 120,000 removals between January and May involving people without convictions ^[1]. These methodologies rest on coding choices—what counts as “minor” or “misdemeanor,” how traffic infractions are logged, and whether administrative immigration violations are treated alongside criminal misdemeanors. The result is robust directional evidence of substantial misdemeanor‑level removals, though absolute precision remains constrained by coding and reporting limits ^[1].

4. Diverging interpretations and possible agendas — advocates, journalists, and officials

Advocacy groups and investigative outlets highlight the human and legal implications of removing people for minor infractions, framing the data to show a policy shift toward broader enforcement against noncriminal populations ^{[1] [3]}. Journalistic accounts emphasize trends and individual stories to press for transparency. By contrast, government statements and some enforcement narratives prioritize aggregate removal numbers as evidence of border and interior enforcement success without isolating offense severity; that framing can downplay how many removals involved nonviolent or administrative violations ^[2]. Each viewpoint advances policy aims—either holding ICE accountable for a broadened enforcement net or defending operational outcomes—so the data interpretations should be read with attention to those potential agendas.

5. What this means for policymaking and public understanding — gaps matter

The available evidence shows a clear increase in removals tied to traffic and other low‑level offenses and a large share of detainees with no criminal convictions, signaling a substantive change in enforcement composition in 2025 ^{[1] [4]}. Yet policymakers and researchers cannot produce a single, universally accepted count of deportations for misdemeanors without ICE providing standardized, public cross‑tabulations of removals by the legal severity of the most serious conviction and by administrative versus criminal grounds. That lack of standardized reporting undermines nuanced debate and obscures the scale at which minor offenses drive removals, complicating legislative and oversight responses ^[2].

6. Bottom line and recommended next steps — what investigators should demand next

Based on the assembled analyses, thousands of 2025 deportations involved traffic violations and other minor offenses, with independent counts indicating at least 1,800 traffic‑related removals and two‑thirds of early‑year removals involving people with no criminal convictions ^[1]. To convert these directional findings into definitive numbers, investigators should press ICE for transparent, machine‑readable tables that disaggregate removals by the most serious conviction type, criminal severity (misdemeanor vs. felony), and whether removal was pursued on administrative immigration grounds versus criminal conviction. Such disclosure would resolve current gaps and allow policymakers to assess whether enforcement priorities align with stated policy goals ^[2].