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A sharp increase in immigration detentions of non-criminal immigrants has triggered a wave of protests, bipartisan criticism, and renewed scrutiny of the Trump administration’s evolving deportation priorities, a CBS News analysis of Department of Homeland Security data has found.
According to the analysis, detentions of individuals with no criminal history rose more than 250% between early May and early June, following a White House directive to triple the daily arrest target for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to 3,000 arrests per day.
The spike represents a stark departure from the administration’s long-stated focus on removing immigrants convicted of serious or violent crimes. While President Trump continues to say the focus is on “criminal aliens,” ICE data tells a different story:
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Nearly half of those currently held in detention have no criminal convictions,
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Just 8% of all detainees have convictions for violent offenses,
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Traffic offenses, primarily DUI, make up the largest share of criminal convictions among detainees.
“So what we’re doing is we’re really going after the criminal aliens,” Trump claimed at a legislative event Thursday. But the numbers contradict that claim, according to immigration analysts and internal ICE data.
DHS Pushes Civil Arrests Despite Public Messaging
The enforcement escalation stems from a late-May directive by White House adviser Stephen Miller, who reportedly set the 3,000-per-day arrest goal. According to sources familiar with internal planning, ICE field offices were instructed to prioritize sheer volume, even if that meant detaining individuals without any prior criminal history.
Tom Homan, Trump’s top immigration enforcement official and now “border czar,” defended the shift in strategy.
“If you’re in the country illegally, you’re not off the table,” Homan said in a May interview. “It’s a violation of law to enter this country illegally.”
More than 97,000 people have been detained in Trump’s first five months in office. As of June 23, a record 59,000 individuals were in ICE custody, half of them on civil immigration violations alone, according to the Deportation Data Project, which obtained ICE records through a lawsuit.
“Collateral Arrests” and Sanctuary Cities
Homan cited “sanctuary city” policies as a driver behind the surge in arrests of non-criminal immigrants.
“When sanctuary cities force us into neighborhoods to find that bad guy, many times that person is with others who are illegally in the country but may not be a criminal target,” he said. “Well, they’re going to go too.”
These are known within DHS as “collateral arrests.”
But critics argue this tactic targets the easiest—not the most dangerous—individuals.
“It requires significantly more resources to go after one person who may be armed and dangerous,” said Ariel Ruiz Soto, senior policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, “as opposed to going outside a Home Depot and trying to gather a larger number of people.”
Political and Public Backlash
A CBS News poll in June found that support for Trump’s deportation efforts drops sharply when Americans learn non-criminals are being prioritized.
The uptick in arrests has triggered nationwide protests, especially in Los Angeles, where Trump recently deployed the National Guard. California Governor Gavin Newsom condemned the “indiscriminate targeting of hardworking immigrant families.”
In a rare rebuke, six Republican members of Congress sent a letter to ICE demanding clarity on how many criminals have been deported since January.
“Every minute that we spend pursuing an individual with a clean record is a minute less that we dedicate to apprehending terrorists or cartel operatives,” the lawmakers wrote.
A Discrepancy Between Rhetoric and Reality
The data underscores what analysts describe as a long-standing disconnect between Trump’s public claims and the administration’s actual enforcement priorities.
“There’s been a disconnect from the beginning,” Ruiz Soto said. “When you look at the numbers, it’s very clear that has not been the case since the beginning.”
As the Trump administration pushes forward with its sweeping One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which contains billions for immigration enforcement and deportation operations, critics warn that the current trajectory may not reflect the values or wishes of most Americans — or the promises originally made by the administration itself.
