What share of people in ICE detention have no criminal convictions, by quarter in 2024–2025?
Executive summary
Available public reporting and analyses show a clear shift in ICE’s detained population in 2025 toward people without criminal convictions, but the sources do not publish a clean, official quarter-by-quarter series for 2024–2025; the best contemporaneous snapshots indicate roughly two-thirds to three-quarters of people in ICE detention in late 2025 had no criminal convictions [1] [2] [3]. Where sources cover broader time spans (arrests from Oct 2024–mid‑2025) they report lower but still majority shares without convictions, underscoring both rapid change and gaps in official quarterly breakdowns [4] [5].
1. The user’s question and what the sources can — and cannot — deliver
The question asks for a quarterly series of the share of people in ICE detention who have no criminal convictions across 2024–2025, but ICE’s public “Detention Statistics” postings and subsequent analyses by research groups do not publish a tidy public table by calendar quarter that spans both years; available reporting supplies snapshot percentages at certain dates and aggregated multi‑month studies rather than a formal quarter-by-quarter time series, so any answer must be assembled from these snapshots and clearly labeled as such [6] [7].
2. Best-available snapshots: mid‑2025 and late‑2025 ranges
Multiple independent data users and reporting outlets converged on similar late‑2025 estimates: TRAC and other analyses put the share of detainees with no criminal convictions at about 71–74% by September–November 2025 [7] [2] [3], The Guardian and others reported that in mid‑December 2025 roughly three‑quarters of the detained population lacked criminal convictions [8], and TRAC’s public data as of Sept. 21, 2025 show about 72% with no convictions [1].
3. Earlier 2025: arrests and bookings through mid‑year show a still‑majority but lower share
Analyses that cover arrests and bookings from October 2024 through mid‑June 2025 find that a majority of people arrested or booked by ICE lacked convictions, but the share is lower than the late‑year snapshots — for example, a Reason analysis of bookings through June 14, 2025 estimated about 65% of people arrested by ICE had no criminal convictions, and other trackers noted increasing shares through spring and summer 2025 [4] [5]. Those figures imply a notable upward trajectory across 2025 rather than a static level.
4. What this means if read as quarters (approximate and caveated)
Interpolating the available snapshots (with the clear caveat that this is not an official quarterly series) suggests roughly: early 2025 (Q1): majority without convictions but closer to the mid‑60% range based on arrest/booking analyses spanning Oct 2024–June 2025; mid‑2025 (Q2–Q3): trend rising toward ~65–72%; late 2025 (Q4): roughly 71–75% with no criminal convictions as seen in TRAC, Migration Policy Institute and press reporting [4] [2] [3]. This interpolation must be treated as an evidence‑informed estimate because the agencies and datasets cited do not publish a standard quarter‑by‑quarter table for 2024–2025 [6] [7].
5. Caveats, competing interpretations and institutional agendas
Different datasets and analysts use distinct denominators (book‑ins, current detained population, arrests versus transfers from CBP), which produces variation: TRAC’s detained‑population snapshots consistently showed roughly 70–74% without convictions in late 2025, while analyses of arrests/bookings over multi‑month windows report somewhat lower shares earlier in the year [7] [4]. Advocacy groups and researchers interpret the shift as either evidence of broadening enforcement beyond “criminal aliens” narratives or as a function of new ICE policies that expand who is mandatorily detained; the agencies’ public messaging and some leaked internal datasets push competing frames, so transparency about definitions and timing matters for any quarter‑level claim [2] [6] [9].