DHS pressed on immigration arrest numbers

As the Trump administration continues to escalate immigration enforcement operations around the country, the Department of Homeland Security claims 75 percent of the people arrested by ICE have committed violent crimes.

“Seventy-five percent of those illegal aliens who have been arrested have prior convictions,” DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin told PBS News Hour’s Amna Nawaz on Wednesday.

McLaughlin’s comments come as recent reports show that most of the people taken into ICE custody don’t have criminal records or criminal convictions.

An analysis from the Guardian found that the biggest increase in immigration arrests was among people who were never charged or convicted of a crime.

Similarly, a recent CNN report, based on internal government data, found that less than 10 percent of people taken into ICE custody have been convicted of violent crimes.

“I don’t know where CNN or the Guardian are getting their data, but I wouldn’t say that those are exactly nonpartisan outlets,” McLaughlin said. “I don’t really rely on them for facts or analysis. I do rely on the Department of Homeland Security and our career civil servants, who are giving us this data.”

After this interview, we asked DHS for data backing up the claim that 75 percent of the 260,000 people arrested were convicted of a violent crime. The most recent information they provided, from April, referred to 158,000 arrests, 75% of whom had convictions “or pending charges.”

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