WASHINGTON — Immigration and Customs Enforcement is increasingly arresting immigrants who have no criminal record, marking a significant expansion of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement campaign and raising new questions about who federal agents are targeting.
More than half of the immigrants detained by ICE in July had no criminal record, according to an analysis of federal immigration data reported by The Washington Post. The shift comes as the administration has dramatically increased the number of immigration arrests and pressed the agency to reach much higher daily arrest targets.
The development is significant because President Donald Trump and senior administration officials have repeatedly emphasized removing immigrants they describe as dangerous criminals. The latest data indicate that enforcement is increasingly reaching people who have not been convicted of crimes.
Record levels of immigration arrests
ICE's enforcement activity has risen sharply during Trump's second term.
In July alone, the agency arrested nearly 50,000 people, according to government data analyzed by the Deportation Data Project. About 51 percent of those arrested had no prior criminal record. The July total represented the highest monthly level of ICE arrests recorded during Trump's second term.
Another analysis of federal data found that ICE arrested more than 800 people without criminal records per day on average in July. The increase came as the administration pushed ICE toward a target of approximately 2,000 arrests each day.
The numbers illustrate how the administration's enforcement strategy has expanded beyond traditional operations focused on immigrants with serious criminal convictions.
Who is being targeted?
ICE enforcement traditionally included people convicted of crimes, people facing criminal charges and immigrants who violated immigration laws.
But the latest figures show a growing share of arrests involving people without criminal convictions or pending criminal charges.
Data compiled by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University also show that the majority of people currently held in ICE detention have no criminal conviction. As of July 11, 2026, about 70.6 percent of people in ICE detention fell into that category.
Having no criminal conviction does not necessarily mean that a person has lawful immigration status. Immigration violations are generally handled through the civil immigration system rather than the criminal justice system.
That distinction has become central to the political debate over the administration's enforcement campaign.
A major change in enforcement tactics
The increase is not simply the result of larger immigration raids.
ICE has increasingly relied on what officials describe as at-large arrests, in which agents locate and detain people away from traditional jail-to-ICE transfer systems.
Reports indicate that arrests have occurred during traffic stops, visits to ICE offices and other encounters where immigration officials can identify people they believe are subject to removal.
The approach allows ICE to find significantly more people than it would through cooperation with local jails alone.
It has also increased the likelihood that people with no criminal history will come into contact with immigration enforcement.
The numbers have been rising for months
The latest figures are part of a broader trend.
An earlier analysis of ICE data found that, since Trump returned to office in January 2025, the agency had arrested more than 146,000 immigrants with no charges or convictions, compared with more than 127,000 immigrants who had criminal convictions.
The share of detainees without criminal convictions has also remained high.
TRAC reported that more than 46,000 of roughly 65,800 people in ICE detention as of July 11 had no criminal conviction. Some detainees classified as having criminal histories had only minor offenses, including traffic violations.
Administration defends expanded enforcement
The Trump administration has argued that aggressive immigration enforcement is necessary to remove people who are in the United States unlawfully and to improve public safety.
Federal officials have emphasized that immigration violations themselves can provide grounds for detention and removal, even when an immigrant has never been convicted of a criminal offense.
The administration has also expanded cooperation between federal immigration authorities and state and local law enforcement agencies through programs that give participating officers greater authority to assist with immigration enforcement.
Critics warn of broader consequences
Immigration advocates and civil rights groups argue that the rising number of arrests involving people without criminal records demonstrates that the enforcement campaign has moved well beyond the administration's public emphasis on dangerous criminals.
They warn that aggressive enforcement can separate families, disrupt workplaces and create fear in immigrant communities, including among people who have lived in the United States for many years.
The debate has also intensified over how immigration enforcement should distinguish between people convicted of serious crimes and people whose only violation is their immigration status.
A new phase of Trump's immigration crackdown
The growing number of arrests involving immigrants without criminal records suggests that the Trump administration's deportation strategy is becoming broader and more intensive.
The administration has made mass deportation a central policy objective, while ICE has dramatically expanded arrests and detention capacity.
But the latest data show that achieving those goals is increasingly dependent on detaining people who do not fit the traditional image of a criminal offender.
As enforcement continues to expand, the central political question is no longer simply how many immigrants the government can deport. It is also how far federal authorities should go in pursuing people who have no criminal convictions and what consequences that broader approach will have for families and communities across the United States.
The numbers suggest that the answer is already changing: ICE is casting a much wider enforcement net than it did before, and immigrants without criminal records are increasingly caught in it.
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