Percentage of ICE detainees charged with violent crimes

1. What the headline numbers show

Independent analyses relying on ICE’s own reporting conclude that a small minority of people held in ICE detention have violent convictions: the Cato Institute’s synthesis reported about 5% with violent convictions and that 73% had no convictions at all ^{[1] [4]}, Stateline tracked a decline from 9% in January to under 5% in October for convictions for violent crimes ^[2], and the Brennan Center summarized similar findings putting violent convictions at roughly 7% in some calculations ^[3]; ICE’s public classifications also separate detainees by convictions, pending charges, and no charge categories, underscoring that most detained people fall outside the violent‑conviction bucket ^{[5] [6]}.

2. Why the percentage varies across reports

Differences in the reported share stem from what analysts count: convictions versus pending charges versus whether arrests by Border Patrol are included, and the time window examined—ICE’s rapidly changing monthly book‑ins and fiscal‑year aggregates shift the denominator frequently ^{[5] [6]}. Some researchers use “arrested by ICE” datasets that exclude Border Patrol referrals, others use ICE-wide detention snapshots; Cato and other analysts note ICE sometimes labels people with only pending charges as “criminal arrests,” which inflates criminality metrics compared with convictions-only tallies ^{[1] [4]}.

3. The important legal and technical distinctions

Statistics conflate three different legal statuses: criminal convictions (final adjudication), pending criminal charges (not yet proven), and immigration violations (civil grounds such as illegal entry or reentry), and ICE’s own categories explicitly list those distinctions—meaning a headline citing “criminal arrests” may include people never convicted of a violent offense ^{[5] [1]}. Several analyses show that large portions of detention growth in FY2026 were people with no criminal convictions—researchers estimate non‑criminal detainees represented the majority of growth while only a single‑digit percentage of growth was attributable to those with criminal convictions ^[7].

4. Conflicting official claims and political context

DHS and ICE officials have defended enforcement priorities by highlighting that a large share of arrests involve people with convictions or pending charges—DHS spokeswoman statements claimed roughly 70% of ICE arrests had convictions or pending charges—an assertion that sits uneasily with public analyses showing a high and rising proportion with no convictions, reflecting competing narratives and incentives in enforcement and oversight debates ^{[8] [1]}. Advocacy groups and watchdogs frame the low violent‑conviction share as evidence detention is not focused solely on “the worst of the worst,” while enforcement officials emphasize pending charges and overseas violent fugitives excluded from some datasets ^{[3] [8]}.

5. Bottom line — what can be said with confidence

Based on the available public analyses of ICE’s own data through late 2025, between about 5% and 7% of people in ICE custody had convictions for violent crimes, with several trackers reporting under 5% by October 2025; meanwhile a large majority of detainees had no criminal conviction, and many more had only pending charges or immigration violations—differences in definitions and the rapidly changing detained population explain most of the apparent discrepancy between critics’ and officials’ claims ^{[1] [2] [3] [6] [5]}. The sources cited here do not provide a universally harmonized, single figure because ICE reporting and independent analyses diverge on inclusion rules and timing, so the 5–7% range is the best-supported summary available in the current public record ^{[1] [2] [3]}.