Hi [r/dataisbeautiful](https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/), this is Jake from The Guardian’s audience team, resharing some charts from earlier this week (sorry mods, we forgot about Rule 8!). The data visualized here comes from documents we received through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed against the Department of Homeland Security.
Our analysis of government records has found that the vast majority – 77% – of people who entered deportation proceedings for the first time in 2025 had no criminal conviction, exposing a stark gap between the [Trump administration](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/trump-administration)’s rhetoric and reality.
The findings come from little-known documents known as I-213 forms. DHS uses these forms in court to prove that a person is in the country illegally.
The Guardian analyzed data extracted from nearly 140,000 I-213 forms, from January 2025 through mid-August 2025, and found that the surge in arrests under Trump is driven by the apprehension of people who have never been convicted of a crime.
The analysis also reveals:
* Fewer than half of the people in the data (40%) had any criminal charge against them, and only 23% had a conviction.
* Of those who did have a criminal conviction, nearly half were for non-violent traffic and immigration offenses.
* Traffic offenses alone made up nearly 30% of the convictions, the largest category by far.
* Some 9% of criminal convictions were for assault, while only 1% were for sexual assault and just 0.5% were for homicide.
We had to sue for these records, which are not generally available to the public, and got unprecedented access to I-213 forms covering January to August 2025.
An important caveat to keep in mind: being in the country illegally is not a criminal offense, it’s a civil offense. The criminal records in our story are from state and federal crimes that people have been charged with.
*Source: ICE’s I-213 forms, obtained via a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit*
*Visualizations made with Adobe Illustator, Datawrapper, and Svelte*
Truly surprising that the unaccountable secret police were lying this whole time.
Material-Influence93 on
The fewer bad drivers, the better my insurance rates will be.
NYR_LFC on
To the surprise of no one who isn’t willfully ignorant
peterbound on
That is an extremely misleading title.
Illegal immigrants, or naturalized immigrants? Or immigrants that are currently on a ‘good’ visa?
I get the feeling is the first option, and their very existence in this country is ‘illegal’ anything extending beyond that status is just another charge (prime the civil offense argument, that spits in the face of our sovereign ability to control our borders and who passes through them)
I’ll say it again, the majority of Americans love and cherish immigration and we are most of us a product of it, they just don’t like people jumping the queue.
its0matt on
As long as you don’t count coming into the country illegally as a criminal act. No other country on earth allows unrestricted, unvetted access to it’s borders.
teddyrupxin on
OC, why are you not including arrests, traffic tickets, paperwork errors, missed deadlines, and confirmed jay walking incidents? The open bias in the media is unreal. /s
LanceLynxx on
Cute caveat at the end to hide behind the technicality of illegal immigration being a civil issue and not a criminal one, then using that technicality to make a sensationalist headline.
Classic legacy media
HoldingThunder on
Immigrants, even illegal immigrants are found to commit crimes at a lower rate than citizens of the United States. It makes sense if they are deporting en mass without due care that the rate of convictions among the deported would be low.
Front_Fill1249 on
Conversely, that’s a high percentage of people with a criminal conviction relative to legal migrants / general pop.
illathon on
If you are here illegally then you gotta go. Just like if you speed then you get a speeding ticket. It is no difference. No multiple tiers of justice.
TheMiscRenMan on
That’s like saying 77% of people committing a crime and were arrested had no prior criminal convictions. Do we only want police to arrest people that are repeat offenders? Or, maybe … hear me out … when someone commits a crime they should be arrested. (Entering a country illegally or overstaying a Visa is a crime.)
Master_Flip on
They’re all criminals: crossing the border illegally
don00000 on
The Guardian once again conflating legal and illegal immigrants. Very impartial reporting, thank you. /s
If you’re here illegally you need to be deported.
irow40 on
This shouldn’t be complicated. Valid visa — you’re in. Expired visa — you’re out. Every other country on earth operates this way. Get it renewed or go home. Simple.
DeerAndBeer on
This is only US crime data. A lot of these people being deported may not have committed crimes in the US but they have records in their home countries. Likely why they fled to the US in the first place. We have no data on this but it inevitably skews the data on counts of criminals.
EntropyRX on
You are delusional. Just because someone without a valid visa doens’t have a criminal record does NOT mean they can stay in the country. You guys seem to have fallen for some hysteria about illegal aliens being deported. That’s simply how the LAW works; it’s the same law democrats had when in power.
Remake12 on
I am pretty sure that the goal is to deport all illegal immigrants and the strategy is to prioritize criminals first. What is funny to me is, in states with sanctuary city laws, they do not keep illegals in jail while awaiting trial if they have been arrested and charged, they let them go. They do this because, if they are in jail or prison, then ICE comes and picks them up. Because they keep releasing criminals, ICE has to get together a task force involving ICE agents, the FBI, DOJ, ATF, DHS, and CBP to hunt them down and arrest them. This is why red states can have 10x the number of deportations with little to no military style ICE raids or protests. When the ICE agents find the criminals, they detain all other people they are with, as law enforcement usual does with criminals. It just so happens that they usually find more illegals when they find the criminal that they are looking for and, per Tom Hohman, they arrest and deport them as well.
To recap, they are PRIORITZING criminals, meaning that they are still going after all illegals, but their focus at the moment is criminals and second to that is easy to find and catch illegals, which explains ICE rolling up to home depots and the like. I don’t think that this chart reflects the true criminal/non-criminal ratio of the immigrant community, it is likely the same or slightly higher given you need to be a bit reckless and willing to cross boundaries to come here illegally in the first place.
NTBTSTU on
The criminal charge is being in the country unlawfully
kpeterson159 on
I mean, how many offenders were carrying marijuana? By the federal government standards, it is the WORST drug you can do even though 1/3 people smoke it regularly.
Sad_Zucchini3205 on
That is the main reason why i dont vote for right wing guys. I want criminals out. Not just numbers for the people.
Silvers1339 on
Crossing into our country illegally is a crime. In case somebody needed that spelled out to them.
smooshiebear on
Except for the fact that if they came into the country illegally, they already committed a crime, whether or not there was a conviction in a courtroom ruling.
IMakeMyOwnLunch on
When did this sub become a right-wing cesspool?
It’s ironic because the right is allergic to data.
beat-around-my-bush on
If I enter a store in after hours, and don’t break any additional laws like stealing, I’m still breaking the law. I am a criminal for trespassing, aren’t I?
And if I’m caught doing that, should I be allowed to stay in the store because I haven’t committed any other crimes like stealing or larceny?
It’s crazy to me that breaking a rule needs to be qualified as “not a crime unless they commit another crime and are caught”
Seraphtacosnak on
You wrote “not charged” as the title, but the data you put was “not convicted.”
One happens after the court hearing.
VealOfFortune on
How many times is this going to be reposted?
While we’re at it, 83% of criminal illegals deported in 2013 never saw a judge or courtroom 😬
so just to be clear, of the 40% of people who are actually charged, 77% are never even convicted.
sounds like more of a mass harassment campaign than an immigration crackdown.
regardless of how ill informed peoples opinions seem to be on the subject, this isnt an effective way to address illegal immigration. i dont think it was ever meant to be.
GuyanaFlavorAid on
23% of the total represented here. Let’s say on average….150 convict people per day over ten months, about 45,000 out of “ten million illegals!”. 0.45% then. About 8% of Americans have a felony conviction according to AI. TOTAL illegals. This is just apprehended ones.
JamesandthegiantpH on
How could this be!? We’re told that they’re rounding up all the ‘cartels’ that Biden let in….. /s
Ineludible_Ruin on
If they’re here illegally then they have broken a law and are, by definition, criminals. Not sure why this is such a difficult concept for so many.
Bathmate_Expert on
Entering another country illegally IS A CRIMINAL CHARGE if/when caught.
jewfishcartel on
Your title says charge, while the graph shows convictions. These are two completely different metrics. Also entering a country illegally is you guessed it, illegal.
mikeysd123 on
Jesus, The Guardian is shitposting on reddit now?
Lmfao.
Connathon on
now do ones with criminal violation
CLtruthful on
They crossed the border illegally…..
Trenix on
Entering the United States illegally is a criminal offense under U.S. federal law. This makes absolutely no sense.
Freedom_33 on
If I’m reading correctly A lot of those convictions include traffic offenses it seems like. Those are crimes (moving violations anyways) and you are supposed to list them on immigration paperwork.. however most people wouldn’t consider traffic offenses as crimes in that sense I imagine
DimensioT on
No *charges*. That does not mean that they did not commit numerous crimes, possibly even horrific crimes against children, that were never noticed. You just have to use your imagination and then ICE’s brutal tactics become completely justified.
![[OC] Most US immigrants targeted for deportation in 2025 had no criminal charges, ICE documents reveal](https://www.byteseu.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/mj10q49s8vlg1-1024x745.png "[OC] Most US immigrants targeted for deportation in 2025 had no criminal charges, ICE documents reveal")
39 Comments
Hi [r/dataisbeautiful](https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/), this is Jake from The Guardian’s audience team, resharing some charts from earlier this week (sorry mods, we forgot about Rule 8!). The data visualized here comes from documents we received through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed against the Department of Homeland Security.
Our analysis of government records has found that the vast majority – 77% – of people who entered deportation proceedings for the first time in 2025 had no criminal conviction, exposing a stark gap between the [Trump administration](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/trump-administration)’s rhetoric and reality.
The findings come from little-known documents known as I-213 forms. DHS uses these forms in court to prove that a person is in the country illegally.
The Guardian analyzed data extracted from nearly 140,000 I-213 forms, from January 2025 through mid-August 2025, and found that the surge in arrests under Trump is driven by the apprehension of people who have never been convicted of a crime.
The analysis also reveals:
* Fewer than half of the people in the data (40%) had any criminal charge against them, and only 23% had a conviction.
* Of those who did have a criminal conviction, nearly half were for non-violent traffic and immigration offenses.
* Traffic offenses alone made up nearly 30% of the convictions, the largest category by far.
* Some 9% of criminal convictions were for assault, while only 1% were for sexual assault and just 0.5% were for homicide.
We had to sue for these records, which are not generally available to the public, and got unprecedented access to I-213 forms covering January to August 2025.
An important caveat to keep in mind: being in the country illegally is not a criminal offense, it’s a civil offense. The criminal records in our story are from state and federal crimes that people have been charged with.
*Source: ICE’s I-213 forms, obtained via a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit*
*Visualizations made with Adobe Illustator, Datawrapper, and Svelte*
[*You can read the full story for free at this link.*](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/22/us-immigration-trump-administration?referring_host=Reddit&utm_campaign=guardianacct)
Truly surprising that the unaccountable secret police were lying this whole time.
The fewer bad drivers, the better my insurance rates will be.
To the surprise of no one who isn’t willfully ignorant
That is an extremely misleading title.
Illegal immigrants, or naturalized immigrants? Or immigrants that are currently on a ‘good’ visa?
I get the feeling is the first option, and their very existence in this country is ‘illegal’ anything extending beyond that status is just another charge (prime the civil offense argument, that spits in the face of our sovereign ability to control our borders and who passes through them)
I’ll say it again, the majority of Americans love and cherish immigration and we are most of us a product of it, they just don’t like people jumping the queue.
As long as you don’t count coming into the country illegally as a criminal act. No other country on earth allows unrestricted, unvetted access to it’s borders.
OC, why are you not including arrests, traffic tickets, paperwork errors, missed deadlines, and confirmed jay walking incidents? The open bias in the media is unreal. /s
Cute caveat at the end to hide behind the technicality of illegal immigration being a civil issue and not a criminal one, then using that technicality to make a sensationalist headline.
Classic legacy media
Immigrants, even illegal immigrants are found to commit crimes at a lower rate than citizens of the United States. It makes sense if they are deporting en mass without due care that the rate of convictions among the deported would be low.
Conversely, that’s a high percentage of people with a criminal conviction relative to legal migrants / general pop.
If you are here illegally then you gotta go. Just like if you speed then you get a speeding ticket. It is no difference. No multiple tiers of justice.
That’s like saying 77% of people committing a crime and were arrested had no prior criminal convictions. Do we only want police to arrest people that are repeat offenders? Or, maybe … hear me out … when someone commits a crime they should be arrested. (Entering a country illegally or overstaying a Visa is a crime.)
They’re all criminals: crossing the border illegally
The Guardian once again conflating legal and illegal immigrants. Very impartial reporting, thank you. /s
If you’re here illegally you need to be deported.
This shouldn’t be complicated. Valid visa — you’re in. Expired visa — you’re out. Every other country on earth operates this way. Get it renewed or go home. Simple.
This is only US crime data. A lot of these people being deported may not have committed crimes in the US but they have records in their home countries. Likely why they fled to the US in the first place. We have no data on this but it inevitably skews the data on counts of criminals.
You are delusional. Just because someone without a valid visa doens’t have a criminal record does NOT mean they can stay in the country. You guys seem to have fallen for some hysteria about illegal aliens being deported. That’s simply how the LAW works; it’s the same law democrats had when in power.
I am pretty sure that the goal is to deport all illegal immigrants and the strategy is to prioritize criminals first. What is funny to me is, in states with sanctuary city laws, they do not keep illegals in jail while awaiting trial if they have been arrested and charged, they let them go. They do this because, if they are in jail or prison, then ICE comes and picks them up. Because they keep releasing criminals, ICE has to get together a task force involving ICE agents, the FBI, DOJ, ATF, DHS, and CBP to hunt them down and arrest them. This is why red states can have 10x the number of deportations with little to no military style ICE raids or protests. When the ICE agents find the criminals, they detain all other people they are with, as law enforcement usual does with criminals. It just so happens that they usually find more illegals when they find the criminal that they are looking for and, per Tom Hohman, they arrest and deport them as well.
To recap, they are PRIORITZING criminals, meaning that they are still going after all illegals, but their focus at the moment is criminals and second to that is easy to find and catch illegals, which explains ICE rolling up to home depots and the like. I don’t think that this chart reflects the true criminal/non-criminal ratio of the immigrant community, it is likely the same or slightly higher given you need to be a bit reckless and willing to cross boundaries to come here illegally in the first place.
The criminal charge is being in the country unlawfully
I mean, how many offenders were carrying marijuana? By the federal government standards, it is the WORST drug you can do even though 1/3 people smoke it regularly.
That is the main reason why i dont vote for right wing guys. I want criminals out. Not just numbers for the people.
Crossing into our country illegally is a crime. In case somebody needed that spelled out to them.
Except for the fact that if they came into the country illegally, they already committed a crime, whether or not there was a conviction in a courtroom ruling.
When did this sub become a right-wing cesspool?
It’s ironic because the right is allergic to data.
If I enter a store in after hours, and don’t break any additional laws like stealing, I’m still breaking the law. I am a criminal for trespassing, aren’t I?
And if I’m caught doing that, should I be allowed to stay in the store because I haven’t committed any other crimes like stealing or larceny?
It’s crazy to me that breaking a rule needs to be qualified as “not a crime unless they commit another crime and are caught”
You wrote “not charged” as the title, but the data you put was “not convicted.”
One happens after the court hearing.
How many times is this going to be reposted?
While we’re at it, 83% of criminal illegals deported in 2013 never saw a judge or courtroom 😬
The US Government Deported 438,000 People in 2013. 83 Percent Never Got a Hearing. – Mother Jones https://share.google/szzdckfOh4A6J1Vks
so just to be clear, of the 40% of people who are actually charged, 77% are never even convicted.
sounds like more of a mass harassment campaign than an immigration crackdown.
regardless of how ill informed peoples opinions seem to be on the subject, this isnt an effective way to address illegal immigration. i dont think it was ever meant to be.
23% of the total represented here. Let’s say on average….150 convict people per day over ten months, about 45,000 out of “ten million illegals!”. 0.45% then. About 8% of Americans have a felony conviction according to AI. TOTAL illegals. This is just apprehended ones.
How could this be!? We’re told that they’re rounding up all the ‘cartels’ that Biden let in….. /s
If they’re here illegally then they have broken a law and are, by definition, criminals. Not sure why this is such a difficult concept for so many.
Entering another country illegally IS A CRIMINAL CHARGE if/when caught.
Your title says charge, while the graph shows convictions. These are two completely different metrics. Also entering a country illegally is you guessed it, illegal.
Jesus, The Guardian is shitposting on reddit now?
Lmfao.
now do ones with criminal violation
They crossed the border illegally…..
Entering the United States illegally is a criminal offense under U.S. federal law. This makes absolutely no sense.
If I’m reading correctly A lot of those convictions include traffic offenses it seems like. Those are crimes (moving violations anyways) and you are supposed to list them on immigration paperwork.. however most people wouldn’t consider traffic offenses as crimes in that sense I imagine
No *charges*. That does not mean that they did not commit numerous crimes, possibly even horrific crimes against children, that were never noticed. You just have to use your imagination and then ICE’s brutal tactics become completely justified.