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How many immigrants in ICE detention have been convicted of minor offenses such as traffic violations or misdemeanors?
Executive Summary
Two-thirds or more of people processed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) into detention and removals in 2025 had no criminal convictions, and a substantial share of those with convictions were for minor offenses such as traffic violations, misdemeanors, or immigration-related infractions. Public reporting and nonpublic ICE data converge on a picture in which between roughly 65% and 71.5% of individuals booked into ICE custody had no criminal convictions, while most convictions among those who did involve nonviolent, low-level categories, supporting the claim that many detainees are detained for minor offenses or have no convictions at all [1] [2] [3].
1. Why the headline numbers point to detention of people without serious crimes
Multiple datasets and reporting threads from 2025 indicate a consistent pattern: a large majority of ICE book-ins and current detainees lacked felony or violent convictions. Nonpublic ICE data summarized by analysts showed 65 percent of individuals booked into detention had no criminal convictions and over 93 percent were never convicted of violent offenses, with most recorded convictions falling into immigration, traffic, or nonviolent vice categories [1]. Independent reporting compiled by investigative outlets found that among more than 120,000 people deported in an early 2025 window, two-thirds had no criminal convictions, and an additional 8 percent were recorded only for illegal entry, implying that removals and detentions are heavily weighted toward people without serious criminal records [2]. Both data points underline that ICE custody is frequently applied to people without violent or major felony histories, which is central to evaluating the claim about minor offenses.
2. Current detainee snapshot: the 71.5% figure and what it means
A frequently cited snapshot from September 21, 2025 reports that 71.5 percent of current detainees had no criminal convictions, while many of the remaining detainees were alleged to have only minor offenses such as traffic violations or misdemeanors [3]. This figure represents a point-in-time census of people in ICE facilities, not the entire universe of arrests or removals over a longer period, and therefore signals that at that moment a substantial plurality of those behind bars were nonconvicted on criminal charges. The implication is that detention policy and arrest practices — including arrests for immigration violations or referrals from local law enforcement — result in a detainee population where nonconviction is the modal status, and where minor or administrative offenses account for many of the convictions that do exist [3].
3. How “minor offenses” get categorized in the datasets
Reports and ICE-provided breakdowns group convictions into broad buckets that often include traffic offenses, immigration-related crimes, misdemeanors, and nonviolent vice crimes. The nonpublic ICE data noted that most convictions fell into these nonviolent categories, and that more than 93 percent of book-ins had never been convicted of a violent offense [1]. Journalistic analyses of deportation records also found that many deported individuals had no criminal history or only low-level infractions, reinforcing that the label “minor” covers a wide set of offenses from traffic tickets to petty misdemeanors and immigration technical violations [2]. This classification practice matters because policy debates hinge on whether detention is being used for dangerous individuals or for administrative control over migration and low-level offenses.
4. Diverging snapshots and the importance of time windows
Different published figures refer to different populations: one set describes people deported over a specific multi-month period, another describes current detainees at a single date, and ICE internal book-in data covers bookings rather than end-state removals [2] [3] [1]. The 65% figure reflects ICE book-ins over a period, the 71.5% figure is a point-in-time count of current detainees, and the two-thirds figure applies to deportations in a given five-month span, meaning the percentages are comparable but not identical populations [1] [3] [2]. This variation explains why different reports produce slightly different headline percentages while consistently showing that nonconvicted and low-level-convicted individuals make up the majority of these cohorts.
5. What’s left out and how to interpret the policy implications
Analyses emphasize the criminal-conviction status and offense categories but often omit details like whether pending charges existed, the severity distribution within misdemeanors, or the role of local arrests and criminal-justice referrals in funneling people into ICE custody [4] [5]. Some datasets note a share of detainees with pending charges, many for minor offenses, which complicates binary “convicted vs. nonconvicted” readings [4]. The convergence of sources on high percentages of no-conviction or minor-conviction detainees is robust, but interpreting what this means for public safety or policy requires data on outcomes, recidivism, and alternatives to detention that the summarized sources do not fully provide [5] [4].