Since Donald Trump's presidential campaign in 2024, immigration has been a centerpiece of his platform.
On the campaign trail, Trump promised to prioritize deporting what he has repeatedly described "the worst of the worst." When challenged, the administration has emphasized the president meant people in the U.S. without authorization who were convicted or accused of serious crimes.
But a new analysis of federal immigration data suggests that's not the real picture here in Texas.
The Houston Chronicle examined immigration and customs enforcement arrest records obtained through the Deportation Data Project using the Freedom of Information Act. They found that after an initial focus on immigrants with criminal convictions or pending criminal charges, ICE increasingly shifted its attention toward people whose only known violation was related to immigration itself.
According to the analysis, between February 2025 and February 2026, more than 38,000 people in Texas without criminal convictions or pending charges were arrested by ICE — more than either those with criminal convictions, or those facing pending criminal charges.
The Department of Homeland Security disputes the implication of those numbers, arguing that the data is being presented in a misleading way. DHS says nearly 70% of ICE arrests nationwide involve what it calls "criminal illegal aliens." They have also argued some people classified as non-criminals may have committed crimes outside the U.S. that don't show up in U. S. criminal records.
Julián Aguilar, who reported on this issue for the Houston Chronicle, said the data shifts after the first four months of Trump's second term.
"Initially, it sounded like they were keeping to the president's campaign promise to go after 'the worst of the worst' and criminals," he said. "Then there was a dramatic shift into what ICE calls 'other immigration violators,' which are people with no pending charges and no criminal convictions. What a lot of folks say, immigration attorneys, is that (the government is) doing this because they need to pad their stats."
Aguilar said ICE defines "other immigration violators" as individuals without any non-criminal convictions or pending charges at the time of the ICE enforcement action.
"So probably overstaying a visa or entering without authorization. And these infractions are usually prosecuted in a civil enforcement matter instead of a criminal enforcement matter," he said.
"ICE, when it has a big round of criminal arrests, they send out press releases with mugshots. So it seemed likely that they would provide proof of (criminality if they had it). But instead, as you pointed out, they sort of quibble with the numbers and say that they're being cherry-picked."
DHS says some people counted as non-criminals may have committed crimes overseas, which Aguilar said would be hard to prove or disprove without cross checking people's history in their home countries.
Immigration advocates also point out that many of the people being arrested are detained at meetings that are part of the formal asylum process.
"A lot of folks that they are arresting with no charges, they're showing up to check in. They have an asylum claim that came in during the Biden administration, or maybe even during the first Trump administration," he said. "And immigration lawyers say it's low-hanging fruit… And their argument is, why would these people turn themselves into ICE — check in with ICE every few months, every few weeks — if they had a criminal charge in the country they came from."
Biden administration officials have also clarified that before these asylum seekers were released into the United States, the federal government conducted background checks, Aguilar said.
"But I think it's a fair point to ask how thorough were those background checks with just the amount of people that did come through during those four years," he said.
If you found the reporting above valuable, please consider making a donation to support it here. Your gift helps pay for everything you find on texasstandard.org and KUT.org. Thanks for donating today.
Copyright 2026 KERA News