More than a third of ICE detainees have no criminal record, data shows

Mathew Schumer, Baltimore Sun on Oct 2, 2025

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Nearly 17,000 immigrants without a prior criminal record are being detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to government data released last week.

While the Trump administration said it would primarily focus enforcement on undocumented immigrants with serious criminal convictions, detentions have surged since President Donald Trump took office in January, with a sharp increase in those who had neither convictions nor pending charges.

The population of ICE detainees has more than tripled since 2024, as the Trump administration implemented arrest quotas for federal agents as part of its crackdown on undocumented immigrants. At the time, the government said that ICE would be targeting the “worst of the worst,” focusing on undocumented immigrants with either criminal convictions or pending criminal charges.

During the first few months of the administration, the number of ICE detainees in all categories increased steadily — the most pronounced change being in detainees with pending criminal charges. At the end of April, ICE maintained that 75% of those arrested were criminals.

Since setting a goal in May to arrest as many as 3,000 people each day, there has been a steep climb in detainees with no criminal record, while the rise in arrests of convicted criminals or those with pending charges has remained relatively the same. These detainees — who made up less than 10% of the population in ICE detention — now account for nearly 40% of those currently being held by ICE.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia had no previous criminal record when he was arrested by ICE and deported to his native El Salvador in March, according to arresting documents.

However, he currently faces federal human smuggling charges, brought after his arrest, stemming from a 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee, when highway patrol officers pulled him over while he was driving with nine passengers.

The officers suspected Abrego Garcia of smuggling, as shown by body camera footage, but ultimately let him off with a warning. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Crisaly De Los Santos, the Baltimore and Central Maryland Director of CASA, a national immigrant and Latino advocacy organization based in Maryland, said that the ICE arrests she has been tracking tend to target working-class immigrants, rather than criminals.

“They are going after everyday people,” De Los Santos told The Baltimore Sun, “mainly day laborers, parents and people who live in our communities — not specifically going after people that have warrants.”

She said that Baltimore’s first district, which has the highest concentration of Hispanic and Latino residents in the city, has seen the highest number of ICE raids since the beginning of the second Trump administration, specifically at places like Home Depot on Eastern Avenue.

“The Trump administration’s top immigration enforcement priority is removing the countless dangerous criminal illegal aliens that the Biden administration let waltz through their open border and have been terrorizing American communities,” wrote White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson in an email response to The Baltimore Sun’s request for comment.

“President Trump successfully secured the border in record time, and now the administration is removing these sick criminals from our streets,” Jackson said in the statement.

Daniel Fuentes Espinal, a pastor and resident of Easton since 2015, was arrested by immigration agents in July for overstaying a visa, which ICE officials claim has been expired for 24 years. ICE released Espinal in August after public outcry following his detention, with many pointing out the fact that he has no criminal record.

In a statement released by ICE, the agency wrote that “it is a federal crime to overstay the authorized period of time granted under a visitor’s visa,” though federal law classifies overstaying a visa as a civil offense.

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