What percentage of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. are convicted of violent crimes?

1. What the best studies actually measure — arrests and offending rates, not a clean national conviction percentage

Researchers frequently rely on arrest records or conviction proxies in focused datasets rather than a nationwide numerator/denominator that yields a single percentage for the whole undocumented population. For example, a National Institute of Justice‑funded study used Texas Department of Public Safety arrest data (2012–2018) and reported undocumented immigrants were arrested for violent and drug crimes at less than half the rate of native‑born citizens — the study uses arrest rates as proxies for offending, not a national share of convictions ^[1]. The PNAS analysis of Texas also found U.S.‑born residents were more than twice as likely to be arrested for violent crimes as undocumented immigrants, again a comparative rate not a percentage of all undocumented people who have convictions ^[2].

2. National enforcement tallies exist but are not a straightforward answer

Federal agencies publish “criminal alien” arrest and conviction tallies from enforcement encounters (U.S. Customs and Border Protection compiles Criminal Alien Statistics), but those counts reflect people encountered by enforcement and convicted prior to or after apprehension — they do not produce a defensible national rate of convictions among all undocumented residents because the total undocumented population and selection biases in enforcement are not harmonized in those reports ^[3]. A privately compiled summary cited by a news outlet claims violent crimes were under 8% of “convictions” among certain federal datasets in 2025, but that kind of aggregation can reflect enforcement priorities and encounter samples more than populationwide prevalence ^[4].

3. Peer‑reviewed and policy research consistently finds lower violent‑crime rates among undocumented immigrants

Multiple academic and policy sources conclude undocumented immigration is not associated with higher violent crime rates and that undocumented immigrants have lower arrest/conviction rates for violent crimes than U.S.‑born people. A longitudinal macro study concluded unauthorized immigration is generally not associated with violent crime (Green, summarized in a literature review) ^[5]. The American Immigration Council, Migration Policy Institute, and Brennan Center summarize a broad body of research finding immigrants — including undocumented people — are less likely to commit violent crimes than U.S.‑born residents ^[6][7][8]. These findings are robust across multiple datasets and methods but focus on rates and comparative risk rather than a simple national percentage of convicted undocumented people.

4. Why a single percentage is hard to produce — data gaps and methodological limits

Estimating “what percent of undocumented immigrants are convicted of violent crimes” requires three high‑quality inputs: (a) a reliable numerator of documented convictions among undocumented people; (b) a reliable denominator for the total undocumented population; and (c) correction for detection and enforcement bias. Researchers note there are “few good estimates” of the number of undocumented immigrants and that prior studies often cannot cleanly separate documented from undocumented people except in special datasets ^[9][10]. Law enforcement encounter data oversamples people who come into contact with authorities ^[3], and academic studies typically avoid producing a single national convicted‑share for that reason ^[10][1].

5. How to interpret the evidence — comparative safety vs. absolute counts

All available academic and major policy summaries cited here argue that undocumented immigrants are not driving violent crime increases and are less likely to be arrested/convicted for violent offenses than U.S.‑born citizens ^[2][1][7]. That does not mean violent crimes by undocumented people never occur — reporting notes high‑profile violent incidents do happen but are “really rare” in the context of overall offending patterns ^[9]. Critics and some enforcement agencies emphasize counts of “criminal aliens” to highlight convictions among the encountered population ^[3][4]; proponents of immigration and criminal‑justice research emphasize population‑level comparisons showing lower rates ^[6][8].

6. Bottom line and guidance for further clarity

There is no single, reliably sourced national percentage in the provided reporting that answers “what percentage of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. are convicted of violent crimes.” Instead, peer‑reviewed and policy studies using arrest and conviction data — particularly strong state‑level data from Texas — consistently find undocumented immigrants have lower violent‑crime arrest rates than U.S.‑born residents ^[2][1]. If you want a numeric national percentage, available sources do not report one; obtaining it would require harmonized national conviction data linked to immigration status and an agreed estimate of the undocumented population, neither of which is provided in the sources above ^[3][10].