How many deported aliens actually had a criminal record
Executive summary
Different government datasets and independent analyses produce sharply different answers to “how many deported aliens actually had a criminal record,” because agencies count different populations (border vs. interior removals), use different definitions (convictions vs. pending charges vs. immigration violations), and publish conflicting summaries; studies using ICE arrest snapshots put the share with convictions roughly between one-third and a half in the administration’s first year, while other trackers and advocacy analyses report that the majority of those detained or removed had no criminal conviction [1] [2] [3] [4].
1. What the official numbers say — big totals, few conviction details
The Department of Homeland Security and its components report large removal totals: DHS claimed more than 527,000 removals in one press summary and later touted over 670,000 removals in another recap of enforcement actions under the current administration [5] [6], and The New York Times’ analysis of federal data counted roughly 540,000 deportations across the first year (about 230,000 interior and 270,000 at the border) [7]; but those public tallies do not consistently break down how many of the removed people had criminal convictions versus pending charges or only immigration violations, and CBP’s public “criminal alien” label is defined as someone convicted of one or more crimes prior to interdiction [8].
2. Independent analyses paint a more nuanced — and contradictory — picture
University-led datasets and think-tank analyses diverge sharply: the Deportation Data Project and FactCheck.org found that in the administration’s first year about 36.5% of ICE arrests had prior criminal convictions, with another roughly 30% facing pending charges and about a third having neither convictions nor pending charges [1], while PolitiFact summarized ranges across available ICE data showing the share with convictions or charges ranged roughly between 41% and 57% [2]; by contrast, the Cato Institute’s analysis—using leaked nonpublic ICE data—reported that only about 90,000 removals had criminal convictions and fewer than 150,000 had convictions or pending charges to date, concluding that a sizeable share of arrests and removals involved people without convictions [9].
3. Detention snapshots and advocacy studies emphasize non‑criminals in custody
Detention-focused trackers and advocacy groups report that a large majority of people in ICE custody or detained at given snapshots had no criminal conviction: TRAC’s twice‑monthly snapshot showed 52,504 of 70,766 people in ICE detention—about 74.2%—had no criminal conviction as of January 25, 2026 [3], and the Brennan Center summarized earlier ICE data showing more than 70 percent of detained immigrants had no criminal record in a comparable period [4]; these detention snapshots illustrate why public messaging about “criminal aliens” can paint a different picture than aggregate removal totals.
4. Why the numbers disagree — definitions, data scope and political incentives
The disagreement is driven by definitional and scope differences: CBP’s “criminal alien” label is convictions-before-interdiction [8], ICE counts can mix convictions and pending charges and lump interior arrests with border removals [10] [1], and independent projects often rely on FOIA-obtained snapshots or leaked datasets that cover different time windows or subpopulations [1] [9]. Political messaging from DHS emphasizes “worst of the worst” removals and highlights specific convicted offenders in press releases [6], while critics and advocacy groups emphasize the high share of non‑convicted people detained or deported, creating strong incentives on both sides to select the most favorable metrics [5] [4].
5. Bottom line — a range, not a single number
There is no single authoritative tally in the available reporting that converts total removals into a precise count of deported people with convictions that all parties accept; depending on the metric and source, the share of deported or detained noncitizens with criminal convictions or pending charges ranges from roughly a third to a bare majority in multiple analyses [1] [2], while several datasets and watchdogs show that a large plurality or majority of people in custody at snapshots had no criminal conviction [3] [4], and some analyses of removals to date report that only tens of thousands had convictions while hundreds of thousands did not [9]. The available sources thus support the conclusion that a substantial portion—but far from all—deportations involve people with criminal convictions, and that precise counts depend entirely on the definition and dataset chosen [8] [10].