Do 70% of immigrant detainees have criminal convictions or charges? Fact-checking Kristi Noem

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the majority of immigrants in federal immigration detention have a criminal history.

She made the statement during a lengthy and somewhat confusing back-and-forth with CBS News correspondent Margaret Brennan Jan. 18 on "Face the Nation":

Brennan: "What’s the breakdown of the percentage of those you have in custody who have actually committed a criminal offense versus just the civil infraction?"

Noem: "Every single individual has committed a crime, but 70% of them have committed or have charges against them on violent crimes, and crimes that they are charged with or have been convicted of, that have come from other countries that are here illegally, first of all. And then they have committed a criminal act while they've been here or in their home countries as well."

Brennan: "It's not 70%."

Noem: "Yes, it is. It absolutely is, Margaret. You guys keep changing your percentage, you pick and choose what numbers you think work, but that is the facts, is that 70% of the people that we have detained have charges against them or have been convicted of charges."

Brennan: "OK, well, our reporting is that 47% — based on your agency's own numbers — 47% have criminal convictions against them."

Noem’s comments could be taken a number of ways. At first, Noem’s wording made it sound like she was referencing people with violent criminal convictions or charges. But she also talked about pending charges. And Brennan asked Noem about people currently in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody, but Noem’s wording made it sound like she was describing detention more broadly under Trump’s entire first year in office.

Analysis of government data shows most people the government has detained have not committed violent crimes. And people who are facing criminal charges aren't necessarily accused of a violent crime, and they could be acquitted.

While campaigning in 2024, President Donald Trump promised to prioritize deporting violent criminals, and he has since tried to assure Americans that’s what his administration is doing.

"We’re looking to get the criminals out right now, the criminals," Trump said at a Jan. 20 press conference marking the one-year anniversary of his second term in office. "We’re focused on the murderers, the drug dealers."

Entering the U.S. illegally is generally a misdemeanor and being in the U.S. illegally is generally a civil offense.

The percentage of immigrants who have criminal convictions or pending charges varies depending on the data’s time frame: Are we talking about Trump’s first year in office? Or are we taking snapshots of who’s in detention at any given time. Either way, Noem’s figure is higher than what the data reflects. Currently, about half of immigrants in ICE detention have criminal convictions or pending charges. But when we look at all immigrants who have been federally detained since Trump took office for his second term, the number goes up to approximately 64%.

The Department of Homeland Security didn’t respond to our request for comment. Here’s a breakdown of the numbers.

Have 70% of detained immigrants committed violent crimes?

Independent data analyses have found the percentage of detained immigrants convicted of violent offenses to be far below 70%.

But the figure is hard to quantify. DHS’ public data shows how many immigrants have been convicted or charged with a crime, but not what type of crime. So the group could include people who have been convicted of rape or murder as well as those convicted of property theft or traffic violations.

An October analysis by the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, found that 5% of detainees from Oct. 1 to Nov. 15 had been convicted of violent crime. Most detainees with a criminal conviction were found guilty of traffic violations.

The New York Times reached a similar conclusion, finding that from Jan. 20 to Oct. 15, 7% of immigrants arrested by ICE had violent convictions.

Do 70% of immigrants currently in detention have criminal convictions or pending criminal charges?

No, the percentage is about half. ICE periodically updates public-facing statistics about people who are in immigration detention. According to the latest data — from Jan. 7 — 68,990 people were in detention.

Of those, 17,729 were listed as having criminal convictions and 17,881 were facing pending criminal charges. That means about 26% of detained immigrants had a criminal conviction and another 26% had pending criminal charges. So about 52% of detained immigrants had either a criminal conviction or pending criminal charge.

Looking at a more recent time frame, CBS News reported Jan. 16 that internal DHS data showed a record-high of about 73,000 immigrants in ICE detention. About 47% of those detainees had criminal convictions or pending charges, CBS reported. Brennan cited this figure on air.

The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a research group that uses Freedom of Information Act requests to analyze government data, charts detention data snapshots taken twice a month. The percentage of immigrants with criminal convictions or pending charges during Trump’s first year in office ranged from 41% to 57%.

Do 70% of all the immigrants detained during Trump’s second term have criminal convictions or pending charges? 

The best figures suggest it’s in that ballpark. University of California Los Angeles researchers at the Deportation Data Project collect and publish immigration data received via FOIA requests. A PolitiFact analysis of its data from Jan. 20, 2025, to Oct. 15 found 64% of immigrants who have been detained under Trump’s second term had either a criminal conviction or pending criminal charge.

About 66% of immigrants ICE arrested from Jan. 20, 2025, to Oct. 15 had criminal convictions or pending charges. Not everyone ICE arrests ends up in detention because there’s limited space.

The share of detained immigrants who have criminal charges or convictions has "fallen rapidly," David Bier, associate director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute, said. So it’s "bad faith to ignore the more recent share" of immigrants who have been booked into detention.

It’s important to note that people with pending charges may never be convicted of a crime; the charges could be dismissed, or they could be found innocent. Many people will miss their day in a U.S. court because they were deported.

About 30% of immigrants detained during Trump’s first year had criminal convictions, the Deportation Data Project found.