Despite promise to remove 'worst of the worst,' ICE has arrested only 6% of known immigrant murderers

ICE told Congress in September that over 13,000 immigrants known to have committed murder remained at large. Since then, only 752 have been arrested.

After six months of aggressive immigration enforcement and promises to focus on deporting violent criminals, the Trump administration has arrested and detained a small fraction of the undocumented immigrants already known to Immigration and Customs Enforcement as having been convicted of sexual assault and homicide, internal ICE data obtained by NBC News shows.

The data is a tally of every person booked by ICE from Oct. 1 through May 31, part of which was during the Biden administration. It shows a total of 185,042 people arrested and booked into ICE facilities during that time; 65,041 of them have been convicted of crimes. The most common categories of crimes they committed were immigration and traffic offenses.

Almost half of the people currently in ICE custody have neither been convicted of nor charged with any crime, other ICE data shows.

Law officials escort a suspect during a raid of an apartment complex Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025, in east Denver.David Zalubowski / AP fileLast fall, ICE told Congress that 13,099 people convicted of homicide and 15,811 people convicted of sexual assault were on its non-detained docket, meaning it knew who they were but did not have them in custody. A spokesperson said at the time that ICE had some information about but did not know the exact whereabouts of all the immigrants on the non-detained docket and that some could have left the United States or could be in prison.

Running for president at the time, Donald Trump used those figures to criticize his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris.