Technically True but Deeply Misleading — ICE's 'Criminal' Label Covers Far More Than You Think

The claim is that roughly 70% of people ICE arrests are classified as criminal illegal aliens by DHS. ICE's own annual reports do show figures in that ballpark — 64% in FY2022 and 73% in FY2023, according to ICE Fiscal Year Annual Reports. So the statistic isn't invented. But the word 'criminal' is doing enormous heavy lifting here, and that's where the claim falls apart.

ICE's definition of 'criminal' is extraordinarily broad. As the American Immigration Council documents, it includes people with minor traffic violations, low-level misdemeanors, and even pending charges that have never resulted in a conviction. Someone ticketed for driving without a license can appear in ICE's data as a 'criminal alien.' That is a very different picture than the dangerous offenders the label implies.

Researchers at the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University found that a significant share of arrests labeled 'criminal' involve only minor offenses or immigration violations themselves — not serious crimes. The Migration Policy Institute similarly found that the percentage of arrests involving genuinely serious criminals varies widely depending on which administration sets enforcement priorities. The DHS Office of Inspector General has also flagged inconsistencies in how ICE classifies and reports this data, raising further doubts about the reliability of the headline figure.

The number also shifts year to year — from 64% to 78% across recent fiscal years — which means a static '70%' claim is an oversimplification of a moving target shaped more by policy choices than by the actual criminal histories of people being arrested.

This claim spreads because it sounds authoritative — it cites a government agency and uses a precise-sounding percentage. But precision in a number doesn't mean precision in a definition. When you see immigration statistics that use the word 'criminal' without explaining what that includes, treat it as a red flag. The definition matters as much as the number.