DHS Data: Only 2% of Deportation Cases Filed in February 2026 Were on Criminal Grounds

Court filings released on April 7, 2026 showed that immigration authorities sought deportation on criminal grounds for only 741 individuals in February 2026 — approximately 2% of all deportation cases filed that month. The data sharply contradicted the Trump administration's repeated public framing that ICE enforcement primarily targets dangerous criminals. The data was corroborated by TRAC Reports' April 4 snapshot showing 70.8% of ICE detainees (42,722 of 60,311) have no criminal conviction. TRAC noted many of the convictions in the remaining group involved only minor traffic violations or immigration violations. The Prism Reports separately analyzed that two-thirds of the nearly 400,000 ICE arrests recorded since January 2025 involved individuals without any criminal convictions.