‘Worst of the worst’: 70% of illegal immigrants arrested by ICE in 2025 have criminal history

70 percent of those near 600,000 arrests—a whopping 416,000— are of individuals who have “criminal convictions or pending criminal charges just in the US," a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesman told the Washington Examiner. ICE also said many of those who were arrested but have not been charged or convicted of a crime also posed safety concerns for the US.

“This statistic doesn’t account for those wanted for violent crimes in their home country or another country, INTERPOL notices, human rights abusers, gang members, terrorists, etc. The list goes on,” an ICE spokesman said.

Some illegal immigrants, such as Antonio Israel Lazo-Quintanilla, do not have a criminal history in the US, but Lazo-Quintanilla is wanted in El Salvador for aggravated homicide, extortion, possession of drugs, and other crimes. His criminal history is not counted in that statistic.

The Trump administration has promised to detain and deport the "worst of the worst" illegal immigrants that have been staying in the US, meaning those who are public saftey threats, gang members, and others that crossed the border illegally and have been connected to crime.

Despite the high numbers of illegal immigrants with criminal histories being detained by ICE, some left-wing lawmakers as well as some in the media have attempted to characterize ICE raids as targeting those who have only crossed the border illegally.

Some of the Trump administration's latest policy moves have been to send in the National Guard to assist ICE in areas where crime as well as illegal immigrant populations are known to be. Some of those cities have included DC, Los Angeles, Portland, Seattle, Chicago, and others. However, a Supreme Court decision recently blocked the Trump administration from deploying the National Guard in Illinois.