The Trump administration says that when it comes to immigrants who are in the country without permission, it is going after “the worst of the worst,” arresting and deporting violent criminals who prey on Americans.
But the percentage of arrests of immigrants who have convictions or face criminal charges has gone down, not up.
An Inquirer statistical analysis shows that while overall arrests have soared, the proportion of those with criminal backgrounds has dropped significantly since President Donald Trump took office, ebbing even as he aggressively pursues his plan to deport millions of people.
That is true in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and nationwide, as more and more of those arrested are cited for civil immigration violations, not criminal offenses.
Trump often speaks of the “dangerous criminals” his administration seeks to deport, among them murderers, rapists, terrorists, and child predators who he says entered the country under the Biden administration. He says deporting millions of migrants will help protect law-abiding citizens from violent threats.
Asked about drop in the proportion of arrests of immigrants with convictions or pending charges, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said: “Nobody is changing the administration’s immigration enforcement agenda.”
“President Trump’s highest priority has always been the deportation of illegal alien criminals who endanger American communities,” she said in a statement Friday. “… Thanks to President Trump’s strong immigration enforcement policies, approximately three million illegals have left the United States, either through forced deportation or self-deportation.”
So far this year, the administration said last month, it “has arrested scores of depraved illegal alien killers, rapists, and violent sexual predators who were enabled, protected, and unleashed by the Radical Left’s open borders agenda.”
But organizations that advocate for immigrants say that simply arresting more people does not make anyone safer ― and hurts law-abiding families who are working and paying taxes in hopes of building a foundation.
“It’s super traumatic for the kids and the whole family. And to what end?” asked Rachel Rutter, executive director of Project Libertad, a Phoenixville-based organization that serves immigrant youth and families. “Hardworking parents trying to provide a better life for the kids, getting picked up for no reason other than immigration status.”
As President Joe Biden left the White House, immigration authorities arrested 253 people in Pennsylvania in January 2025 ― 49% of whom had criminal convictions. When those with pending criminal charges are included, the figure rises to 73%, or nearly three out of four arrests.
In January 2026, after a year under President Donald Trump, authorities made more than three times the arrests, 802 ― but only 21% of those taken into custody had a criminal conviction. Add those with criminal charges, and the figure increases to 41%.
That means nearly 60% of all immigrants arrested in January in Pennsylvania had no criminal record of any kind.
The same is happening in New Jersey.
In January 2025, immigration authorities arrested 426 people, of whom 39% had convictions. The addition of those facing criminal charges increases the figure to 76%.
A year later, in January 2026, authorities arrested 1,453 people. Only 15% had a criminal record, and adding those with pending criminal charges raises the percentage to 32%.
That means 68% of those arrested for immigration violations in New Jersey had no criminal convictions or charges of any kind.
“ICE’s arrest records debunk the Trump administration’s repeated claims that they are going after the ‘worst of the worst,’” said Vanessa Stine, senior staff attorney for immigrants’ rights at the ACLU of Pennsylvania. “The vast majority of people ensnared by ICE have no criminal contacts at all, and even those with some criminal contact, the majority are for misdemeanors.”
Yet the effects are severe. Federal immigration rules and policies now impose mandatory detention for nearly all immigrants who are arrested, and while federal judges have pushed back, people are losing homes and jobs while they are detained. And they are being deported.
A new American Immigration Council analysis showed that in 2009, at the start of President Barack Obama’s first term, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement set a record by deporting 238,000 people. Now ICE is on track to surpass that, the council said.
Data show ICE is deporting more than 30,000 people a month directly from detention centers, and that does not include those who “self-deport” through a government program or who are permitted to leave on their own by an immigration judge. ICE will likely surpass the 2009 record this year, the council said.
“The statistics reveal what is actually happening on the ground, and the lives that are being impacted,” wrote Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a council senior fellow. “Not just the ‘worst of the worst’ but hundreds of thousands of longtime residents with no criminal records, and people caught up while going about their daily lives.”
The information on arrests analyzed by The Inquirer came from the Deportation Data Project, a group of immigration-focused academics and lawyers who acquire data from the government. It encompasses all arrests made by the Department of Homeland Security, mostly by ICE in the Philadelphia area, but also by the U.S. Border Patrol and Customs and Border Protection.
Polls show that views among Americans vary on what should happen to people living in the United States without official permission, but that there is little sympathy for criminal offenders. Among adults who say that at least some immigrants should be deported, nearly everyone supports deporting those who have committed violent crimes.
The 2025 Laken Riley Act, which mandates detention for accusations of even minor crimes, is named for a 22-year-old nursing student who was attacked and killed by a Venezuelan man who had entered the country illegally.
That and other high-profile crimes have fueled animosity, though a federal study of crime in Texas estimated that undocumented immigrants are arrested at less than half the rate of native-born citizens for violent and drug crimes, and a quarter the rate of native citizens for property crimes.
“The anti-immigrant aims and rhetoric of the administration are built on the false premise of public safety,” said Erika Guadalupe Núñez, executive director of the Juntos advocacy group in South Philadelphia, “casting immigrant communities as dangerous or criminal. This justification doesn’t hold up. Immigrants, including those with criminal charges, are human beings who deserve dignity and the opportunity to build a life in the U.S.”