Photo by WBstage5 via Pixabay.com.
U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) collects data on every person it arrests. The Deportation Data Project, in turn, repackages data provided by ICE in response to FOIA requests by multiple organizations. The numbers here are for the ICE Los Angeles Area of Responsibility (AOR), that encompasses the California counties of Los Angeles, Orange, Ventura, San Luis Obispo, Riverside, and San Bernardino and Clark County in Nevada. It is important to keep in mind that being present in the United States without authorization by itself is not a criminal offense. It is a civil immigration violation. Whereas a person without authorization to be in the U.S. can result in removal from the country, they are not being removed for being a criminal. Many, however, have been removed from the United States because they were convicted of a criminal offense or they were facing criminal charges. Few argue strenuously, if at all, that convicted criminals should not be removed from the country. What has riled many communities within the country, however, is that political promises were made to focus limited enforcement resources on finding and deporting criminals. Data here suggests that those promises are not being kept.
Los Angeles Almanac charts.
Note in the data here that the percentage of arrests made by ICE of immigrants with no criminal history has dramatically increased since early June 2025. This was the first time since at least September 2023 that more non-criminal ICE arrests were made than criminal arrests.
Month / Year | Arrests for Criminal Convictions or Pending Criminal Charges | Arrests for Non-Criminal Immigration Violations | Total Arrests | Percentage of Arrests That Are Non-Criminal |
---|---|---|---|---|
Jun 2025* | 305 | 417 | 722 | 57.8% |
May 2025 | 574 | 293 | 867 | 33.8% |
Apr 2025 | 411 | 132 | 543 | 24.3% |
Mar 2025 | 415 | 126 | 541 | 23.3% |
Feb 2025 | 481 | 164 | 645 | 25.4% |
Month / Year | Arrests for Criminal Convictions or Pending Criminal Charges | Arrests for Non-Criminal Immigration Violations | Total Arrests | Percentage of Arrests That Are Non-Criminal |
Jan 2025 | 326 | 138 | 464 | 29.7% |
Dec 2024 | 246 | 92 | 338 | 27.2% |
Nov 2024 | 216 | 91 | 307 | 29.6% |
Oct 2024 | 277 | 131 | 408 | 32.1% |
Sep 2024 | 215 | 78 | 293 | 26.6% |
Month / Year | Arrests for Criminal Convictions or Pending Criminal Charges | Arrests for Non-Criminal Immigration Violations | Total Arrests | Percentage of Arrests That Are Non-Criminal |
Aug 2024 | 256 | 97 | 353 | 27.5% |
Jul 2024 | 290 | 84 | 374 | 22.5% |
Jun 2024 | 246 | 96 | 342 | 28.1% |
May 2024 | 305 | 145 | 450 | 32.2% |
Apr 2024 | 346 | 184 | 530 | 34.7% |
Month / Year | Arrests for Criminal Convictions or Pending Criminal Charges | Arrests for Non-Criminal Immigration Violations | Total Arrests | Percentage of Arrests That Are Non-Criminal |
Mar 2024 | 264 | 127 | 391 | 32.5% |
Feb 2024 | 303 | 144 | 447 | 32.2% |
Jan 2024 | 240 | 178 | 418 | 42.6% |
Dec 2023 | 232 | 162 | 394 | 41.1% |
Nov 2023 | 233 | 166 | 399 | 41.6% |
Month / Year | Arrests for Criminal Convictions or Pending Criminal Charges | Arrests for Non-Criminal Immigration Violations | Total Arrests | Percentage of Arrests That Are Non-Criminal |
Oct 2023 | 258 | 189 | 447 | 42.3% |
Sep 2023 | 223 | 193 | 416 | 46.4% |
* Through June 10, 2025
Source: Deportation Data Project