Fact check: How often does ICE deport legal permanent residents with criminal records?

1. Summary of the results

While exact statistics specifically for legal permanent residents are not directly provided, we know that ICE deportations heavily involve individuals with criminal records - 79% of all deportations between 2021-2024 involved people with criminal backgrounds ^[1]. In fiscal year 2024, 72% of immigration arrests involved people with criminal convictions ^[2]. Deportable offenses include DUIs, theft, drug possession, and domestic violence ^[1].

2. Missing context/alternative viewpoints

Several important contextual elements need to be considered:

• Selective Enforcement: ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) makes custody determinations on an individual basis, considering factors like immigration history and criminal records rather than automatically deporting all legal permanent residents with criminal records ^[3]
• Internal Issues at ICE: There are significant concerns about ICE's internal operations:

Hundreds of ICE employees have faced investigations for database abuse since 2016 ^[4]

There have been whistleblower allegations regarding misconduct, particularly in the Houston Field Office ^[5]

• Policy Evolution: There has been public support for deporting migrants with violent criminal convictions, particularly during the Trump administration ^[6]

3. Potential misinformation/bias in the original statement

The question itself oversimplifies a complex process:

• It assumes there's a straightforward answer about frequency, when in reality deportation decisions are made on a case-by-case basis ^[3]
• It doesn't acknowledge the significant internal issues within ICE that might affect how these cases are handled ^[4]
• Different administrations and political groups benefit from different narratives:

Law enforcement agencies benefit from emphasizing high criminal deportation numbers ^{[1] [2]}

Immigration advocacy groups benefit from highlighting internal misconduct cases ^{[5] [4]}

• Politicians benefit from either emphasizing or downplaying deportation numbers depending on their stance on immigration