According to an analysis by ABC News of government data, only 3% of individuals detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during the first 14 months of the Trump administration had a violent felony conviction. This analysis was based on data provided by ICE in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the Deportation Data Project and the University of Washington Center for Human Rights.
The findings indicate that immigration enforcement has impacted over 400,000 individuals without a violent criminal history, including parents and spouses of U.S. citizens. The 3% figure aligns with rates observed during the Biden administration, suggesting that the Trump administration did not detain a higher proportion of violent offenders despite an overall increase in detentions.
Under Trump, the detention population reached approximately 60,000, surpassing the previous record of 39,748 in November 2023. From January 20, 2025, to March 11, 2026, a total of 438,537 people were detained, of which 13,018 had a violent felony conviction, defined as homicide, sexual assault, robbery, or assault.
In the first eight months of 2025, ICE apprehended the parents of about 14,450 U.S.-born children, a figure that nearly exceeded the total for all of 2024. More than 9,700 children had at least one parent placed into immigration detention, with over 7,000 parents eventually deported. Among the deported parents, 265 had a violent felony conviction, while 322 of the detained parents had such convictions.
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security stated that the data presented by the Deportation Data Project was selectively chosen to create a misleading narrative, asserting that nearly 70% of ICE arrests are of criminal illegal aliens. They emphasized that individuals counted as 'non-criminals' may have committed serious offenses not reflected in U.S. criminal records.
Andrea Flores, a former Department of Homeland Security official, expressed concern that the mass deportation policy could lead to a child welfare crisis, as many children are losing primary caretakers. The DHS maintains that ICE does not separate families and allows parents to designate a safe person for their children if they are removed.
In the first eight months of 2025, ICE apprehended 4,843 spouses of U.S. citizens, with over 2,000 deported during the first seven months, of which 165 had a violent felony conviction. Flores highlighted the economic and emotional consequences of detaining a primary earner in a household.
The analysis by ABC News combined data from ICE and the Deportation Data Project, utilizing records from the Department of Homeland Security's PERSIST database and I-213 records created during noncitizen arrests. Publicly available data from ICE and DHS was also used to calculate detention populations and removal numbers.