How many people with criminal convictions were deported from the United States in 2023?

1. What claim did the records make and why it matters — parsing the headline numbers

ICE’s FY2023 report states 142,580 removals and explicitly counts 73,822 removed noncitizens with a criminal history, along with removals of 3,406 known or suspected gang members, 139 known or suspected terrorists, and 108 foreign fugitives ^[1]. Those are headline claims frequently cited by policymakers and advocates to argue either that enforcement targeted public-safety risks or that removal totals were modest relative to population size. The precise meaning of “criminal history” drives controversy: ICE’s tally includes a variety of records—administrative arrests, prior convictions, and other encounter records—so the claim is factually grounded in ICE’s internal definitions but not a straightforward count of court convictions ^[1].

2. Independent reporting paints a different composition — a closer look at January–May 2023

Separate reporting and data projects that analyzed removals for parts of 2023 find over 120,000 people removed between January and May, with two‑thirds lacking criminal convictions and 8% removed solely for illegal entry, while about 12% had been convicted of violent or potentially violent crimes ^[2]. That analysis also highlighted removals for relatively minor offenses—thousands for traffic violations and hundreds for marijuana possession—underscoring a contrast with ICE’s “criminal history” framing. Different methodologies and sample windows create divergent portraits: ICE’s fiscal-year aggregate emphasizes enforcement scope; independent month‑by‑month case‑level reviews emphasize conviction status and offense severity ^[2].

3. Why definitions and data windows change the story — technical distinctions that shift totals

ICE’s FY figures count removals, not initial arrests or returns, and label removals by whether a noncitizen has a recorded criminal history, a category that can include arrests, administrative convictions, and past final convictions on record ^[1]. Journalistic datasets and academic studies often count documented court convictions within a removal case or categorize offenses by severity, producing a lower share of removals tied to violent convictions. Timing matters too: ICE’s FY2023 runs October 2022–September 2023, while other analyses look at calendar‑year slices or shorter multi‑month windows, creating non‑identical denominators and shares ^{[1] [2]}.

4. Cross-checks and alternative sources — what corroborates and what diverges

ICE’s published FY2023 numbers are the primary official source for removal counts and the stated number with criminal history ^[1]. Independent projects and public-interest reporting corroborate the presence of significant removals of people without recent or serious convictions, citing case‑level evidence and specific offense categories like traffic and marijuana violations ^[2]. The two tracks converge on one point: tens of thousands were removed in FY2023 and a large subset had some recorded criminal history, but the share and severity of criminal convictions depend on definitional choices and the dataset’s coverage ^{[1] [2]}.

5. What this means politically and for public understanding — claims, agendas, and the missing context

Political actors use the ICE headline—73,822 removed with a criminal history—to emphasize enforcement of dangerous individuals, while critics point to independent case‑level work showing many removals involved nonviolent or minor offenses to argue enforcement priorities are broad ^{[1] [2]}. Both claims are factual within their framing, but neither alone tells the whole story: policymakers and the public need clarity on whether counts mean prior convictions versus any record, the time since an offense, and the legal basis for removal. Evaluations of enforcement policy should combine ICE’s aggregate metrics with case‑level analyses to understand the scope, composition, and public‑safety implications ^{[1] [2]}.