What percentage of ICE detainees in 2023 had prior felony convictions?
Executive summary
Available government data and contemporary reporting show that a large majority of people held by ICE in mid‑2023 did not have violent convictions and that roughly 28–30 percent of detainees had criminal convictions, meaning about 70–72 percent lacked convictions; specific counts vary by reporting date and how “conviction” is defined (e.g., pending charges excluded) [1] [2] [3]. ICE’s own published categories separate “individuals with criminal convictions” from those with pending charges or no criminal history, but public accounts interpret those categories differently, producing different percentage estimates [4] [1].
1. What the official data categories say — and why percentages shift
ICE’s public statistics classify detained people into at least three bins: those with criminal convictions, those with pending criminal charges, and those with neither convictions nor pending charges; that reporting practice means any percentage about “prior felony convictions” depends on whether you count only convictions, include pending charges, or include immigration-related offenses [4]. News outlets using snapshots of ICE data in June–July 2023 reported that about 71.7 percent of detainees had no criminal convictions as of June 29, 2023 — a figure that implies roughly 28.3 percent did have convictions at that moment [1].
2. Multiple contemporaneous counts: why 28–30% appears in reporting
CBC and other mid‑2023 reporting cite ICE’s June figures showing 57,861 detained with 41,495 (71.7%) having no convictions; that math yields about 28.3 percent with convictions — often summarized in coverage as “fewer than 30%” with criminal convictions [1] [2]. CBS News’ reporting of a later internal DHS snapshot framed the detainee population as roughly split, with “nearly 33,000” detainees having criminal charges or convictions versus about 33,000 held only for civil immigration violations — again reflecting a near‑50/50 split in that dataset but relying on a different cut of the numbers [3].
3. Violent versus nonviolent convictions: a narrower slice
Among detainees who did have convictions, reporting shows a small minority were for violent crimes. CBC found that only about 6.9 percent of convicted detainees had violent convictions, while most convictions among the convicted group were for nonviolent categories such as immigration, traffic or vice offenses [1]. That distinction matters: stating the share with any conviction is not the same as the share with violent or serious felony convictions [1].
4. Think in ranges, not a single precise figure
Different snapshots and different inclusion rules produce different headline numbers: some sources report roughly 70–73 percent with no convictions (implying ~27–30% with convictions) [1] [5] [6], while other counts framed the detained population as nearly evenly divided in a particular internal DHS snapshot [3]. The practical takeaway from the sources is a consistent range: approximately 28–30 percent of ICE detainees in mid‑2023 had criminal convictions, but the exact percentage depends on the day and the reporting definitions [1] [2] [3].
5. Limitations in the available reporting and common misunderstandings
ICE’s public categories lump many offense types together and do not always make clear which convictions are misdemeanors, immigration crimes, traffic offenses or serious felonies; this opacity creates room for divergent summaries and political framing [4] [1]. Sources note that ICE sometimes describes “criminal arrests” to include people with pending charges who have not been convicted; counting pending charges as convictions inflates the share presented as “criminal” in some agency and media narratives [5] [4].
6. Competing narratives and political framing
Advocates and analysts citing ICE snapshots emphasize that a majority of detainees lack convictions to challenge rhetoric about focusing on “the worst of the worst,” while other actors point to the growing raw numbers of persons with convictions as evidence of intensified enforcement against criminals — both use the same data but different cuts and emphases [1] [3]. Watch for implicit agendas: summaries that collapse “charged,” “convicted” and “immigration‑crime” categories tend to bolster security arguments, while those emphasizing the “no convictions” share support civil‑liberties critiques [5] [2].
7. Bottom line for the original question
Based on the contemporaneous mid‑2023 ICE data cited in public reporting, roughly 28–30 percent of ICE detainees had criminal convictions; most of those convictions were nonviolent, with only about 6.9 percent of convicted detainees classified as having violent convictions in CBC’s reporting [1] [2]. Available sources do not mention a single definitive nationwide percentage limited strictly to “prior felony convictions” that separates felonies from misdemeanors and immigration offenses in every account [4] [1].
Limitations: This summary relies on the ICE data snapshots and news analyses available in the cited sources; percentage estimates shift by date, by whether pending charges are grouped with convictions, and by how immigration‑related offenses are classified [4] [1] [3].