Index/Organizations/Cato Institute

Cato Institute

American libertarian think tank

Fact-Checks

83 results
Jan 13, 2026
Most Viewed

how many ICE captures are criminals, and what kind

Recent reporting shows two sharply divergent narratives about who ICE is arresting: federal officials and DHS communications assert that a large majority of arrests target people with criminal convict...

Oct 6, 2025
Most Viewed

Where are a majority of ICE agents right now

Available reporting in the provided dataset does not identify a single location where a *majority* of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents are currently situated; instead, the materia...

Dec 14, 2025
Most Viewed

What percentage of ICE agents have prior criminal convictions compared to other federal law enforcement agencies?

ICE booking and detention data show a large majority of people in ICE custody during late 2025 had no prior criminal conviction—multiple analyses put the share without convictions at roughly 70–74% (f...

Dec 3, 2025

how many illegal immigrants voted in the 2024 election

Available reporting and public-data reviews show no evidence that large numbers of unauthorized immigrants voted in the 2024 U.S. general election; documented or prosecuted cases are counted in the do...

Jan 11, 2026

Percentage of ICE detainees charged with violent crimes

Recent public analyses and ICE snapshots place the share of people in ICE custody who have convictions for violent crimes at roughly 5–7 percent, with several trackers finding “less than 5%” by late 2...

Oct 23, 2025

What percent of illegal immigrants in the US are violent criminals or related to drug trafficking?

The available materials do not supply a defensible single percentage of unauthorized immigrants in the United States who are violent criminals or involved in drug trafficking; government enforcement t...

Dec 16, 2025

People killed by Job Biden aggression military or otherwise.

Available reporting documents multiple incidents in which U.S. service members were killed during President Joe Biden’s time in office, including 13 U.S. service members killed in the 2021 Afghanistan...

Jan 17, 2026

ICE KISSIMMEE 2026

Reports in January 2026 show heightened ICE activity in Central Florida that has alarmed Kissimmee residents and local officials, including a public tour of a massive Orlando-area warehouse being eval...

Jan 18, 2026

What data break down ICE arrests in Florida in 2025–2026 by conviction status and alleged offense?

ICE and Florida state releases for 2025–early 2026 present two overlapping but not identical pictures: large, publicized sweeps that ICE and the Florida governor characterize as focused on "criminal i...

Jan 18, 2026

are ice agents more likely to have criminal records than the individuals they arrest

Publicly available reporting and datasets from late 2025–early 2026 show a large and growing share of people arrested and detained by ICE had no U.S. criminal conviction or only minor offenses, with m...

Nov 18, 2025

How does the US rank in global freedom indices compared to other countries?

The United States ranks in the upper-middle tier on broad, multi-dimensional freedom measures but performs unevenly across different indices: it is tied 17th on the Human Freedom Index (out of ~165 ju...

Oct 15, 2025

How many wrongful arrests by ICE have been reported under Trump?

The available reporting presents divergent tallies but converges on a sharp increase in ICE arrests of people with under the Trump administration; one count cites such detainees and another calculates...

Oct 12, 2025

What are the most common crimes committed by each racial group in the US?

The materials supplied do not support a definitive, granular list of “the most common crimes committed by each racial group” in the United States; available analysis focuses primarily on and on , not ...

Oct 24, 2025

How many non-criminal immigrants were deported by ICE in 2024?

ICE removed roughly a quarter to a third of its fiscal-year 2024 deportation total without publicly specifying a precise nationwide count of people with no criminal convictions; independent analyses a...

Nov 9, 2025

What percentage of mass shootings are committed by rightwing extremists in the US?

The sources agree that , but none of the materials reviewed provide a definitive percentage of *all* U.S. mass shootings that are perpetrated by right‑wing extremists. Reports from the Anti‑Defamation...

Nov 8, 2025

Are ice raids only targeting criminals

ICE raids are not limited to people with criminal convictions; multiple independent data aggregates and news analyses from 2025 show a substantial majority of detainees held by ICE had no felony convi...

Jan 17, 2026

how many illegal immigrants have been deported under Obama admin

Official counting methods matter: on the narrow, formal “removals” metric used by DHS and cited by analysts, the Obama administration carried out roughly 2.7–3.0 million formal removals over eight yea...

Dec 12, 2025

what is the percentage of criminals vs non criminals being deported by trump's administration and how many us citizens have been detained by ice

Available government and investigative data show that a large share of people ICE has arrested or detained under the second Trump administration had no criminal convictions — often reported between ab...

Nov 17, 2025

What factors have contributed to increased illegal immigration during Biden presidency?

Illegal border encounters rose significantly during the Biden presidency according to multiple analyses and became a central political issue; experts point to a mix of supply-and-demand factors (stron...

Nov 4, 2025

Do immigrants commit crimes at higher rates than native-born Americans 2023 studies?

Multiple recent studies from 2024–2025 converge on a clear finding: across several measures and time frames. These conclusions are supported by analyses using different datasets — the American Communi...