How many illegal aliens have been detained by ICE so far? And how many of them have criminal records? How many of them are actually here legally?

1. How many people are being held in ICE custody right now — the headline number

Multiple data pulls from ICE and independent trackers show the detained population spiked to roughly 68,990–69,000 in the first two weeks of January 2026, a level described as a record for the agency by Reuters and other outlets relying on ICE statistics ^{[1] [2] [3]}. Other compilations and reporting around mid‑January and January 16 cite similar or slightly higher single‑day figures in the high‑60,000s to low‑70,000s, and trend reports warn the number could continue to rise as new detention space is brought online ^{[5] [7]}.

2. What share of those detained have criminal convictions — the data and the dispute

Independent analyses of ICE datasets show that a substantial majority of people in custody have no criminal convictions: TRAC reported that 48,377 of 65,735 people in ICE detention—about 73.6%—had no criminal conviction as of November 30, 2025, and advocacy and research groups have highlighted that the recent rise in detention has been driven almost exclusively by people without criminal convictions ^{[4] [1] [8]}. The administration and DHS, by contrast, frame enforcement as aimed at “criminal illegal aliens,” asserting that a large share of their arrests involve people with criminal records, but ICE and DHS statements often refer to arrests or removals over a period rather than the instant, on‑the‑ground custody snapshot captured by TRAC and other trackers ^{[6] [9] [5]}. That definitional difference—arrests vs. current custody—helps explain the apparent contradiction in the public record ^[5].

3. How many detained are actually here legally — what the sources do and do not say

Public sources in this dataset do not provide a clear, authoritative count of how many people in ICE custody hold lawful status (for example, lawful permanent residents, parolees, or naturalized citizens mistakenly detained); ICE datasets commonly label people as “aliens” or “detainees” but don’t publish a simple public breakdown of lawful status among the current detained population in the materials cited here ^{[10] [11]}. Reporting and advocacy groups document individual cases of lawful permanent residents and even naturalized citizens caught up in enforcement actions and note that errors and wrongful detentions have occurred, but the available sources do not supply a verified, aggregate number of detainees who are legally present ^{[12] [13] [14]}. Therefore, any precise figure for “how many are actually here legally” cannot be confidently extracted from the provided material.

4. What this means — narrative, incentives, and policy context

The factual record assembled from ICE’s day‑by‑day numbers and independent trackers shows a system expanding rapidly to record populations, with the increase concentrated in people without criminal convictions rather than people serving criminal sentences—a contrast with DHS messaging that highlights arrests of “worst of the worst” criminals ^{[1] [12] [6]}. The difference in emphasis reflects competing agendas: DHS and ICE communications emphasize public‑safety gains and criminal removals ^{[6] [9]}, while watchdogs, advocacy groups, and independent data projects underscore humanitarian, legal, and oversight concerns tied to mass civil detention and the large share of detainees without criminal convictions ^{[1] [12] [15]}. Finally, the public data limit an exact accounting of lawful‑status errors in custody; the record supports confidence in the headline detention totals and in the high proportion without criminal convictions, but it does not allow a precise count of legally present people who were nonetheless detained ^{[1] [4] [10]}.