How has the proportion of criminally charged ICE detainees changed from 2010 to 2025?
Executive summary
The share of ICE detainees who are criminally convicted or charged has fallen sharply by 2025 compared with earlier years, with multiple independent trackers and news outlets reporting that non-criminal detainees became the largest single group in 2025; however, the precise numeric change from 2010 cannot be calculated from the documents provided because a clear 2010 baseline broken out by conviction status is not in the sources [1] [2] [3]. Different datasets and reporting windows in 2025 produce a range of estimates—reports place the convicted share anywhere from roughly 29 percent to below a third, while other trackers show about half of detainees had no convictions in mid‑2025 and later snapshots show even higher shares without convictions [4] [5] [6] [7].
1. The narrative: from criminal-focused detention to mass interior enforcement
For much of the 2010s ICE detention was described by policy analysts as concentrated on people with criminal convictions or pending charges, but by 2025 that pattern had flipped: government and independent trackers documented that detainees without criminal convictions became either the plurality or the majority of people in custody, signaling a policy and operational shift toward broader interior arrests and detentions [3] [2]. The National Immigration Forum and other analysts say funding and policy changes in 2025 enabled detention of many non-criminal immigration cases, shifting the daily detained population away from a pre‑2025 focus on those with criminal records [3].
2. What 2025 looked like in the data: multiple snapshots, one trend
Independent trackers and news organizations reported high shares of detainees with no criminal convictions in 2025: Syracuse TRAC and other compilations found roughly 72–73% of people in ICE custody had no criminal conviction in late 2025 snapshots [6] [8], while other accounts in mid‑2025 put the no‑conviction share near half of the population [5]. FactCheck and Deportation Data Project analyses show a rapid increase through 2025 in the share and number of people with neither convictions nor pending charges—the percentage without convictions or charges rose from the mid‑teens in February 2025 to around 40% or more by mid‑ to late‑2025 in some rolling windows [7]. MinnPost cites ICE reporting that about 29% of detained people in 2025 had convictions, implying roughly 71% did not, corroborating the broad direction of the trend [4].
3. Why estimates differ: timing, definitions, and data slices
Differences in published percentages stem from three rooted issues: varying reporting dates and rolling windows, different use of “no conviction” versus “no conviction or pending charge,” and whether the snapshot is daily population, cumulative book‑ins, or removals; sources explicitly warn that DHS/ICE categories and public statements sometimes group pending charges or immigration offenses into “criminal” buckets, which complicates comparisons [9] [10]. FactCheck’s analysis uses arrest‑level FOIA data to show a doubling in the share with neither convictions nor charges during 2025, while TRAC’s daily‑population snapshots produce slightly different proportions depending on the exact day or month sampled [7] [11].
4. The practical bottom line and limits of the record
Taken together, the supplied reporting shows a clear, large decline in the proportion of ICE detainees who have criminal convictions or pending charges between the early 2010s era (when detention was more criminal‑centric) and 2025, when non‑criminal detainees are the largest group; the magnitude differs by dataset, but the qualitative change is robust across independent trackers, news outlets and policy analyses [1] [2] [3]. The sources do not, however, include a single authoritative 2010 percentage that would let one compute an exact numeric change from 2010 to 2025—OHSS confirms book‑in variables exist back to 2010 but the provided excerpts do not give the 2010 conviction share [1]. Where exact figures for 2025 are reported, they range from roughly 27–29% convicted to about half or fewer convicted depending on when and how the snapshot was taken [4] [5] [6].
5. Competing explanations and the politics of measurement
Advocates and policy groups emphasize that increased detention of non‑criminals in 2025 reflects expanded funding and deliberate priorities [3], while enforcement authorities frame detention decisions around removability, flight risk and statutory obligations, and note categories such as immigration re‑entry that are not “criminal convictions” but may justify custody under law [10]. Reporters and fact‑checkers highlight that agencies’ public messaging and category choices can obscure how many detainees actually have criminal convictions versus pending charges versus pure immigration violations, creating space for competing political narratives [9] [7].