Fact check: What are the top crimes committed by undocumented immigrants deported by ICE in 2024?

1. How ICE’s 2024 numbers frame the “top crimes” headline and what the data actually lists

ICE’s year-end reporting and contemporaneous news summaries present counts of deported noncitizens with charges or convictions and categorical flags such as gang membership, terrorism, and human rights violations, but they do not publish a ranked list of specific offense types (for example: drug trafficking, assault, theft) in the extracts provided. The figures—88,763 with charges/convictions and an average of over five offenses per charged individual—signal a substantial subset with criminal histories, yet the available summaries focus on aggregate counts and categorical flags rather than itemized crime types, leaving the precise “top crimes” among deportees unspecified in these sources ^{[1] [2]}. This matters because headlines citing “top crimes” can imply a ranked criminal profile that the cited documents do not deliver.

2. Where ICE emphasizes severity: gangs, terrorism, and human rights violators

ICE and multiple news outlets highlight 3,706 known or suspected gang members, 237 known or suspected terrorists, and eight human rights violators among removals in 2024, underscoring the agency’s focus on particular security concerns ^[1]. These discrete categories are used by ICE to justify prioritization and resource allocation and are presented as headline figures in December 2024 reporting. Such categorical tallies do not reveal prevalence of common offenses like drug possession, DUI, or property crimes; they instead flag groups that carry specific national-security or human-rights weight in public and policy debates.

3. The statistical headline: over 30% with charges, but what the remainder represents

Multiple summaries report that over 30% of 2024 removals had charges or convictions, implying nearly 70% did not have recorded criminal convictions at the time of removal ^[2]. That remainder includes people without criminal records, those with pending charges, and administrative/immigration-related removals. This split is essential context because it frames deportation activity as not exclusively a criminal-enforcement operation; ICE actions in 2024 encompassed a mix of criminal and civil immigration enforcement, which the raw “criminal deportee” totals alone do not communicate ^[4].

4. Independent research complicates the crime-by-immigration narrative

A September 2025 study summarized by the Cato Institute and reported pressingly indicates that immigrants in the U.S. have lower incarceration risks than native-born Americans, with rates by age 33 of roughly 3% for immigrants versus 11% for native-born in the study cited ^[3]. While this research does not break down crimes by deportation status in 2024, it provides a broader population-level comparison that contrasts with selective statistics emphasizing criminal histories among a subset of deported individuals. This broader finding cautions against extrapolating deportation-crime figures to overall immigrant criminality.

5. Detention composition: many held with no criminal record

Government data reported in late 2025 show the largest group in ICE detention comprised people with no criminal record, numbering 16,523, compared with 15,725 with criminal records and 13,767 with pending charges ^[4]. This shift matters for interpreting the 2024 removal figures: enforcement practices and detention populations affect who is ultimately removed, and the presence of substantial non-criminal detention suggests removals include many administrative cases alongside criminal removals. The interaction between detention policy and reported removal-crime statistics therefore shapes public understanding.

6. What’s missing and what to ask next to identify “top crimes” reliably

None of the provided sources supply an itemized, ranked breakdown of specific offense categories among the 88,763 deportees with charges or convictions; instead the reporting aggregates criminal-status counts and special-category flags ^{[1] [2]}. To answer “top crimes” definitively, one would need ICE’s offense-level dataset or DOJ/CBP crime categorizations for removals by fiscal year, cross-checked with court-conviction records and local jurisdictions. Absent those granular records in the supplied materials, the best-supported claims are the headline counts and categorical flags, not a ranked list of specific offenses.

7. Bottom line for readers weighing the claims

The evidence available in the reviewed reporting supports the claim that a substantial minority of 2024 removals involved individuals with criminal charges or convictions and that ICE flagged hundreds to thousands as gang-affiliated, suspected terrorists, or human-rights violators, but it does not support a precise ranked list of “top crimes” among deported undocumented immigrants in 2024. Broader empirical work and detention data point to lower overall immigrant incarceration risks and a sizeable population detained without criminal records, offering a necessary counterpoint to interpretations that equate deportations with a uniform pattern of criminal offending ^{[1] [2] [3] [4]}.