What percentage of migrants did not have a criminal record that ICE detained in 2025
Executive summary
Multiple independent analyses of 2025 ICE data show that roughly seven out of ten people held in ICE custody had no criminal conviction; Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) reports 73.6% with no criminal conviction as of November 30, 2025 [1], and several news outlets and policy groups cite similar figures [2] [3].
1. The headline figure — what the major datasets report
Point-in-time and aggregated reporting from TRAC indicates that 48,377 of 65,735 people in ICE detention — or 73.6% — had no criminal conviction as of November 30, 2025 [1], a finding echoed by the Brennan Center and outlets such as Fortune and Mission Local, which cite the share of detainees without criminal convictions at roughly 70–74% during mid- and late‑2025 [3] [2] [4].
2. Why different reports give different percentages
Analysts and journalists are drawing from different slices of ICE data — point‑in‑time facility counts, cumulative “book-ins,” or nonpublic datasets obtained by think tanks — which produces variation: the Cato Institute’s analyses highlighted a 65% share of those taken into custody lacking convictions for portions of FY2025 [5] [6], while The New York Times’ examination of records noted that in some high‑profile operations more than half of those arrested had no criminal record [7]; these differences are a product of timeframe, geographic focus, and whether “no criminal record” is measured at booking or as a rolling detention census [7] [5].
3. Sorting definitions — “no criminal record,” pending charges, and ICE threat levels
Reports make different distinctions: many count “no criminal conviction” separately from people with pending charges or prior convictions, while ICE’s public classifications also use an internal “threat level” that often leaves most detainees uncategorized; for example, KPBS reported that only about 7% of detainees were labeled ICE Threat Level One, while a large share were classed as having no conviction or “no ICE threat level” [8], and Cato and others note that including pending charges or non‑violent convictions changes the headline percentages [5].
4. Political and methodological context — why the figure matters and who disputes it
The share of detainees without convictions carries political weight because the administration publicly framed enforcement around removing “the worst of the worst,” a claim critics say the data contradicts [2] [3]; DHS officials have pushed back, calling critiques “false” and defending policies by counting pending charges alongside convictions in broader “criminal illegal alien” tallies [2]. Independent watchdogs, think tanks, and local reporting have flagged that ICE’s surge in arrests after policy directives produced a large increase in people detained for immigration violations rather than criminal histories [3] [5] [9].
5. Limits of the reporting and the bottom line
Available reporting for 2025 consistently places the share of people in ICE custody with no criminal conviction in the roughly 65–74% range depending on dataset and date, with TRAC’s November 30 snapshot at 73.6% [1] and several corroborating analyses putting the figure around 70% earlier in the year [2] [3]; however, differences in definitions (conviction vs. pending charge vs. prior charge), data slices (point‑in‑time versus cumulative book‑ins), and portions of the year examined mean exact precision is limited by the public and leaked datasets cited in reporting [7] [5].