{"id":45323,"date":"2025-11-27T14:01:21","date_gmt":"2025-11-27T22:01:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=45323"},"modified":"2025-11-27T14:01:22","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T22:01:22","slug":"this-is-the-scandal-dhs-data-show-ice-mostly-targeting-people-with-no-criminal-convictions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/11\/27\/this-is-the-scandal-dhs-data-show-ice-mostly-targeting-people-with-no-criminal-convictions\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018This Is the Scandal\u2019: DHS Data Show ICE Mostly Targeting People With No Criminal Convictions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Chicago<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

People detained earlier in the day are taken to a parking lot in Chicago, Illinois, before being transferred to an US Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility on October 31, 2025. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Photo by Jamie Kelter Davis\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve spoken to dozens of people held inside ICE detention centers in Arizona and this tracks,\u201d said Democratic Congresswoman Yassamin Ansari.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Jessica Corbett<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nov 26, 2025 (CommonDreams.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The libertarian Cato Institute this week further undermined the Trump administration\u2019s claims that it is targeting \u201cthe worst of the worst<\/a>\u201d with its violent immigration<\/a> operations in communities across the United States<\/a> by publishing data about the criminal histories\u2014or lack thereof\u2014of immigrants who have been arrested and booked into detention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

David J. Bier, the institute\u2019s director of immigration studies, previously reported<\/a> in June that 65% of people taken by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement<\/a> (ICE<\/a>) had no convictions, and 93% had no violent convictions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

RECOMMENDED…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Protesters<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

How Many People Were Charged After DHS Claimed Chicago Building Was Filled With \u2018Terrorists\u2019? Zero.<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Chicago<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Worst of the Worst\u2019? DOJ Figures Show 97.4% of 614 Detained Immigrants in Chicago Had No Criminal Record<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Monday evening, Bier shared<\/a> a new nonpublic dataset leaked to Cato. Of the 44,882 people booked into ICE custody from when the fiscal year began on October 1 through November 15, 73% had no criminal convictions. For that share, around two-thirds also had no pending charges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The data also show that most of those recently booked into ICE detention with criminal convictions had faced immigration, traffic, or vice charges. Just 5% had a violent conviction, and 3% had a property conviction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOther data sources support the conclusions from the number of ICE book-ins,\u201d Bier wrote, citing information on agency arrests from January to late July\u2014or the first six months of President Donald Trump\u2019s second term\u2014that the Deportation Data Project acquired via a public records request.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The data show that as of January 1, just before former President Joe Biden<\/a> left office, 149 immigrants without charges or convictions were arrested by ICE. That number surged by 1,500% under Trump: It peaked at 4,072 in June and ultimately was 2,386 by the end of July\u2014when 67% of all arrestees had no criminal convictions, and 39% had neither convictions nor charges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bier also pointed to publicly available data about current detainees on ICE\u2019s website, emphasizing that the number of people in detention with no convictions or pending charges \u201cincreased a staggering 2,370% since January from fewer than 1,000 to over 21,000.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to publishing an article on Cato\u2019s site, Bier detailed the findings on the social media<\/a> platform X, where various critics of the administration\u2019s immigration crackdown weighed in. Among them was Congresswoman Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.), who said<\/a>: \u201cThese are the facts. I\u2019ve spoken to dozens of people held inside ICE detention centers in Arizona and this tracks.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

US Sen. Chris Murphy<\/a> (D-Conn.) declared<\/a>: \u201cThis is the scandal. Trump isn\u2019t targeting dangerous people. He\u2019s targeting peaceful immigrants. Almost exclusively.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The US Department of Homeland Security<\/a>, which includes ICE, also jumped in<\/a>, as did DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin. Responding to Murphy, McLaughlin said<\/a> in part: \u201cThis is so dumb it hurts my soul. This is a made-up pie chart with no legitimate data behind it\u2014just propaganda to undermine the brave work of DHS law enforcement and fool Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bier and others then took aim at McLaughlin, with the Cato director offering the raw data and challenging her to \u201cjust admit you don\u2019t care whether the people you\u2019re arresting are threats to others or not.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/x.com\/David_J_Bier\/status\/1993707804650271188?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1993707804650271188%7Ctwgr%5E97b86afe01076f55aaf8f0abaae383f2737bcd7e%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.commondreams.org%2Fnews%2Fimmigrants-criminal-history<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, said<\/a> that \u201cDHS\u2019s spokeswoman lies AGAIN,\u201d calling out her post as \u201ceither a knowing lie or an egregious mistake.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe data David J. Bier published was distributed to multiple congressional staffers and is just a more detailed breakdown of data, which is publicly available on ICE\u2019s own website,\u201d he stressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Journalist Jose Olivares\u00a0noted<\/a>\u00a0that this is \u201cnot the first time Tricia McLaughlin has said that ICE\u2019s own data is \u2018propaganda.\u2019 Months ago, she slammed me and my colleague at the\u00a0Guardian<\/em>\u00a0on\u00a0PBS<\/a><\/em>… even though we used ICE\u2019s own data for our\u00a0reporting<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jessica Corbett<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jessica Corbett is a senior editor and staff writer for Common Dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full Bio ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

People detained earlier in the day are taken to a parking lot in Chicago, Illinois, before being transferred to an US Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility on October 31, 2025.  (Photo by Jamie Kelter Davis\/Getty Images) \u201cI\u2019ve spoken to dozens of people held inside ICE detention centers in Arizona and… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45323"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45323"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45323\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45324,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45323\/revisions\/45324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}