What proportion of ICE detainees each year 2019–2025 were without criminal convictions, by year and source?
Executive summary
Official and independent reporting converge: in 2025 a large majority of people in ICE custody had no prior criminal convictions, with mid- and end‑of‑year snapshots clustering between about 71% and 75% no‑conviction; earlier years show a markedly lower share but the exact year‑by‑year series 2019–2024 is not consistently reported in the provided material [1] [2] [3] [4]. The available sources document a sharp rise in the share of detainees without convictions beginning in 2024–2025, but gaps remain in producing a definitive, source‑by‑source annual table for 2019–2025 from the reporting provided [5].
1. 2019–2021: baseline and data limitations
Pre‑2022 reporting in the supplied sources does not offer clear, consistently reported year‑end percentages of ICE detainees without criminal convictions for each year 2019, 2020 and 2021, though historical government datasets exist and have been posted and analyzed by researchers (Deportation Data Project) covering through 2023 [5]; the excerpts here do not include a simple year‑by‑year percent breakdown for those years, so a firm annual percentage from these sources cannot be stated with confidence [5].
2. 2022–2023: transition visible in FOIA and research files
Analysis repositories and FOIA releases underpinning journalistic work document trends through mid‑2023, but the pieces supplied here summarize patterns rather than give an annual point estimate for 2022 or 2023; Migration Policy Institute indicates a time series exists (Figure 3) spanning 2019–2025 showing the rising share of detainees without convictions, but the text excerpt does not list per‑year percentages for 2022–2023 in the material made available here [1] [5].
3. 2024: drop in convicted share reported by major outlets
Reporting comparing the end of President Biden’s term to the start of President Trump’s second term shows a substantive change: The New York Times reported that in the prior year under President Biden roughly 63% of those arrested by ICE had a criminal conviction (implying about 37% without convictions), and that by mid‑October 2025 the share with convictions had fallen to ~28% (implying ~72% without) — signaling that 2024 levels were materially lower than 2025’s spike but the NYT number (63% convicted in “last year”) serves only as a high‑level comparison rather than a precise 2024 year‑end figure in the provided excerpts [4].
4. 2025: converging snapshots — roughly 71–75% no convictions
Multiple independent and government‑derived accounts in late 2025 and December 2025 converge on a figure in the low‑to‑mid seventies for detainees without criminal convictions: Migration Policy reported about 71% had no criminal conviction as of September 2025 [1], TRAC’s compilation put the Nov. 30, 2025 point‑in‑time share at about 73.6% with no conviction [6], The Guardian reported nearly 75% had no convictions in mid‑December 2025 [3], and MinnPost summarized ICE’s own statement that about 71% had no criminal convictions in 2025 [2]; these separate sources therefore corroborate a 2025 range of roughly 71–75% no prior criminal convictions [1] [6] [2] [3].
5. Why numbers diverge across sources
Differences reflect timing (point‑in‑time counts versus fiscal‑year aggregates), sampling and definitions (ICE counts include people transferred from CBP and classify some categories as “no convictions” even when pending charges exist), and independent analyses using FOIA extracts or different cut‑offs; ICE’s own statistical releases and FOIA datasets underpin many independent tallies but the exact denominator and snapshot date materially alter the percent no‑conviction reported [7] [5].
6. What can be stated with confidence and what cannot
It is well supported that by mid‑to‑late 2025 a clear majority of people in ICE custody had no record of criminal convictions — most independent snapshots and media analyses place that share between about 71% and 75% [1] [6] [2] [3] [4]. What cannot be precisely reconstructed from the supplied excerpts is a complete, source‑by‑source annual series giving an exact percentage without convictions for each year 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024; the underlying FOIA and ICE datasets exist and have been used by analysts, but the specific per‑year values are not enumerated in the material provided here [5] [1].