How many homicides in 2025 involved noncitizen suspects according to state or local law-enforcement reports?
Executive summary
No single, authoritative tally of how many 2025 homicides involved noncitizen suspects can be produced from state or local law‑enforcement reports in the available reporting: national crime data published and discussed in the sources focus on total homicide counts and trends, not suspect immigration status, and the nearest comparable federal snapshot cites arrests of noncitizens with homicide charges from a 2024 ICE enforcement action, not a 2025 compilation [1] [2]. State and local law enforcement datasets cited in the journalism and reports emphasize falling homicide totals in 2025 but do not aggregate suspects’ citizenship status in a way that yields a reliable national number [1] [3] [4].
1. What the sources actually report about 2025 homicides — totals and trends, not suspect citizenship
Multiple contemporary analyses and law‑enforcement samplings describe a sharp nationwide decline in homicides in 2025 — projections centered on preliminary data samples rather than a fully reconciled FBI annual report — with estimates of roughly a 18–21 percent drop and record single‑year declines based on samples of hundreds of agencies [1] [5] [3] [6]. Those sources and city‑level studies provide counts and rates of killings, but the public reporting and sample datasets they rely on do not systematically report suspects’ immigration or citizenship status across jurisdictions, so they do not support a nationwide count of homicides involving noncitizen suspects [1] [3] [5].
2. Federal enforcement statistics that mention noncitizen arrests are not the same as a count of homicide suspects in 2025
The most specific figure in the supplied material about noncitizens and homicide comes from an ICE press release about a January 2024 enforcement sweep: ICE reported 1,713 “charges or convictions for homicide” among a broader set of criminal counts flagged during nationwide operations, and separately said ERO apprehended 171 unlawfully present noncitizens with pending charges or convictions for murder, homicide, or assault against children in that 2024 operation [2]. Those federal enforcement numbers describe ICE arrests and historical conviction records discovered during immigration enforcement; they are not an enumeration of all homicide incidents in 2025, nor are they drawn from state or local homicide case tallies for 2025 [2].
3. Scholarly context: immigrant offending rates and data limitations
Academic and government studies cited in the materials show that undocumented immigrants historically have lower homicide arrest rates than U.S.‑born residents in multi‑year studies, and that homicide arrest rates fluctuate and are influenced by clearance rates and law‑enforcement activity — which complicates any attempt to equate arrests or removals with actual shares of homicide suspects by citizenship [7] [8]. The National Institute of Justice–funded study and related literature emphasize that homicide is relatively rare and many homicides go unsolved, further limiting the reliability of any partial counts based on arrests or enforcement sweeps [7] [8].
4. Why a precise 2025 count by suspect citizenship is not available in these sources
None of the sampled local‑and‑national reporting or research pieces in the provided set publishes a consolidated, state‑by‑state or city‑by‑city list of 2025 homicides with suspects’ immigration or citizenship status; instead, the public pieces focus on aggregate homicide totals, trends, and limited federal enforcement snapshots [1] [3] [2]. Law enforcement agencies vary in what they disclose about suspect demographics and whether they record or release immigration status at all; researchers caution that arrest rates reflect both crime incidence and policing practices, and that homicide clearance variability further clouds comparisons [7] [8].
5. Bottom line
Based on the reporting and documents supplied, it is not possible to state how many homicides in 2025 involved noncitizen suspects according to state or local law‑enforcement reports: the publicly cited 2025 sources provide strong evidence of an overall decline in homicides but do not contain a comprehensive, jurisdiction‑level aggregation of suspect citizenship status, and the closest federal figures reference ICE enforcement and 2024 operations rather than a 2025 count [1] [3] [2] [7]. To produce a definitive number would require either (a) access to state and local homicide case records with documented suspect citizenship across all jurisdictions for 2025, or (b) a federal compilation that explicitly tabulates suspect immigration status for that year — neither of which appears in the provided reporting.