January 9, 2026
ICE, ICE… maybe not so criminal
73% People Detained by ICE Have No Convictions
Leaked ICE stats spark a headline fight: 73% no convictions, 5% violent
TLDR: Leaked data says most people detained by ICE have no criminal convictions and only 5% have violent ones. Comments erupted over “headline spin,” arguing 53% have convictions or charges versus nearly half with none, and debating whether ICE’s mission is crime-fighting or immigration enforcement.
A leak of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) data dropped a bomb: 73% of people booked into ICE custody have no criminal convictions and only 5% have violent convictions. Cue the comment section chaos. One camp launched a headline war, with users like obikatsu joking the post could’ve been titled “27% have convictions,” while others argued the shocking part is the 47% with no charges either. Piker stirred the pot by pointing out that 53% have a conviction or a pending charge, calling that “surprisingly high,” which had the thread debating whether “charges” should count. Flatpepsi17 went full literal, reminding everyone ICE enforces immigration law, not just violent crime, sparking a whole “semantic games” meme about how data is framed. Meanwhile, the source — the Cato Institute — added spice: languagehacker noted that a traditionally conservative think tank publishing this against a Republican-led agenda made the leak feel like political whiplash. The mood swung between outrage, headline gymnastics, and ICE, ICE Baby jokes, as users tussled over whether the numbers expose a bait-and-switch (“worst of the worst?”) or prove the system is grabbing people for status violations rather than crime. Drama level: frosty.
Key Points
- •Leaked ICE data show 73% of people booked into ICE custody since October 1, 2025, have no criminal conviction.
- •Nearly half of detainees had neither a criminal conviction nor pending criminal charges.
- •Only 8% of detainees had violent or property convictions, and 5% had violent convictions.
- •Since October 1, 80% of the increase in daily ICE book-ins came from individuals without criminal convictions.
- •FOIA-based Deportation Data Project figures indicate by late July that 67% of ICE arrests were of people without convictions and nearly 40% without convictions or charges.