The Trump administration has promised to prioritize the “worst first” when it comes to arrests and deportations, but the number of detainees in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody without a criminal conviction or pending criminal charges increased by more than 1,800 in the first two weeks of February, representing 41% of the 4,422 total new detainees in that period, according to new data obtained by NBC News.
During federal fiscal year 2024, the Biden administration made 113,431 immigration arrests, and of those, only 28% were of people who had no criminal convictions or pending criminal charges.
Asked for comment on the data, Tricia McLaughlin, a Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman, said immigrants without criminal records are often “far from innocent” but declined to provide further data.
The new detention data from ICE, which is a snapshot from late last week, shows that its detention centers are at the upper limits of their capacity. The number of people detained went from 39,238 in early February to 41,169 in mid-February. ICE’s detention capacity nationwide is 41,500. It’s unclear how many people who had been in detention were deported or were released through the Alternatives to Detention monitoring program during these two weeks.
NBC News previously reported that President Donald Trump was frustrated by the slow pace of immigrant arrests and deportations, and that two top ICE officials were demoted in response.
One factor in the pace has been the lack of detention space in ICE facilities. And the new data paints a much clearer picture of the dilemma that administration officials face as they try to clear out existing detainees to make room for more new arrestees.
According to the data, only 13% of those currently in ICE detention are on track for “expedited removal,” a designation indicating they can be deported without having a court hearing. The remaining 87% are facing deportation proceedings which could last for months or even years.
Immigration courts are facing a backlog of 3.6 million cases and, as a result, some pending cases may not be heard for years. At least 16,000 current ICE detainees have notices to appear in court, which means they are waiting for a court date.
To relieve space, the administration is now using new detention locations in Texas and Kentucky. It is also seeking to expand detention capacity available to its Denver field office, which includes Colorado and Wyoming, by at least 900 beds, according to new public documents.
The Trump administration has also begun transferring immigration detainees to Guantanamo Bay, where it eventually plans to hold as many as 30,000 people. It has already brought 112 detainees there, and more flights are in the works.
The total number of detainees with criminal convictions or pending criminal charges arrested by ICE and currently in detention did rise over the last two weeks, going up 18% in the last two weeks, from about 14,000 to more than 16,500.
The administration’s public messaging continues to center around alleged criminality. ICE’s page on X highlights the arrests of people it says have been convicted of murder, domestic violence, manslaughter, theft, child pornography and other crimes.
Detainee demographics
The new detainees are overwhelmingly male, a consistent trend. Just 22 female detainees were booked over the last two weeks, according to the data: 11 with criminal convictions or charges, and 11 without.
Available data on total ICE arrests during the Trump administration is less precise. ICE had been posting daily arrest totals to X in the early days of the Trump’s second term, but that effort stopped Feb. 1. It’s unclear if the average number of arrests per day is still surpassing the Biden administration’s average of 282 in September 2024, the most recent month from which data is available.
A dashboard that ICE launched in December 2023 that summarized arrests, deportation and detention data has not been updated since September 2024.
The federal government has also stopped tracking the number of transgender people in ICE detention, which was a part of its previous data collection efforts. Data from mid-January showed 47 transgender detainees in ICE facilities.
