Illegal immigrant crime statistics consistently show that undocumented immigrants are arrested, convicted, and incarcerated at lower rates than native-born U.S. citizens, though the United States does not systematically track crime by immigration status, which leaves real gaps in the national picture. The strongest state-level data, peer-reviewed national studies, and federal enforcement records all point the same direction on overall rates, even as high-profile individual cases and recent enforcement claims have driven a very different public perception.
What the Numbers Say About Crime Rates
The most detailed evidence comes from Texas, the only state that requires law enforcement to determine and document immigration status as part of standard criminal record-keeping. A 2020 study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences analyzed every jailable arrest in Texas from 2012 to 2018 using Department of Homeland Security immigration status data. It found that undocumented immigrants had “substantially lower crime rates than native-born citizens and legal immigrants across a range of felony offenses.” U.S.-born citizens were more than twice as likely to be arrested for violent crimes, 2.5 times as likely for drug crimes, and more than four times as likely for property crimes compared to undocumented immigrants. For homicide, assault, and sexual assault specifically, undocumented immigrants were roughly half as likely to be arrested.
A Cato Institute analysis of Texas homicide conviction data from 2013 to 2022 found illegal immigrants were convicted of homicide at 2.2 per 100,000, compared to 3.0 per 100,000 for native-born Americans, making them 26% less likely to be convicted of murder.
National data lines up with the Texas numbers. A 2024 working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research found that as of 2020, immigrants were 60% less likely to be incarcerated than the U.S.-born population. The Cato Institute’s analysis of 2024 American Community Survey data estimated incarceration rates of 674 per 100,000 for illegal immigrants ages 18–54, compared to 1,195 per 100,000 for native-born Americans, roughly 44% lower. Exclude people held in ICE civil immigration detention from the count and the illegal immigrant incarceration rate drops to 356 per 100,000.
Longer time horizons tell the same story. A 2018 study in Criminology by Michael Light and Ty Miller examined all 50 states from 1990 to 2014 and concluded that “undocumented immigration does not increase violence.” Over that period the undocumented population more than tripled, from 3.5 million to 11.3 million, while the relationship between undocumented immigration and violent crime was “generally negative.” A 2021 study in Oxford Economic Papers by Christian Gunadi found no effect of undocumented immigration on property or violent crime rates at the state level.
Zoom out further and the American Immigration Council found that between 1980 and 2022, as the immigrant share of the U.S. population grew from 6.2% to 13.9%, total crime fell by about 60%, violent crime declined 34.5%, and property crime dropped 63.3%. A beta regression analysis of all 50 states from 2017 to 2022 found “no statistically significant correlation” between a state’s immigrant population share and its crime rate.
Why the Numbers Are Hard to Pin Down
The FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting system does not record whether an arrested person is a citizen, a legal immigrant, or undocumented. Research funded by the National Institute of Justice confirms Texas is the only state that collects that information systematically. California, by contrast, does not allow differentiation between documented and undocumented populations in arrest data. Researchers have described the Texas data as unmatched in “breadth, rigor, and detail.”
Everywhere else, researchers have to estimate. The most widely used technique is the “modified residual method” developed by Christian Gunadi, which identifies likely illegal immigrants in Census Bureau survey data by first categorizing everyone who shows markers of legal status, such as citizenship, military service, welfare receipt, occupational licenses, or arrival before certain dates, and classifying the remainder as likely undocumented. The Cato Institute’s incarceration figures depend on this method. Its authors have run robustness checks that returned consistent results but acknowledge the approach “adds some uncertainty,” and have called for all states to collect immigration status data for incarcerated people.
A common critique of the lower-rate findings is that undocumented immigrants may avoid the criminal justice system entirely, so their crimes go undetected. Light and Miller tested that possibility using victimization data and instrumental variable methods, and found “little evidence” their results were skewed by underreporting or selective migration.
Who Is Actually Being Arrested and Detained
U.S. Customs and Border Protection publishes data on apprehensions of noncitizens with prior criminal convictions. In fiscal year 2024, Border Patrol arrested 17,048 individuals classified as “criminal aliens.” The most common prior conviction was illegal entry or re-entry (10,935), followed by driving under the influence (2,844), illegal drug possession or trafficking (1,566), and assault, battery, or domestic violence (1,084). There were 29 people with prior homicide or manslaughter convictions and 221 with prior sexual offense convictions.
In fiscal year 2025, about 8,800 noncitizens with criminal histories were apprehended at the border, roughly 4% of all apprehensions, carrying about 11,200 total convictions among them.
Interior enforcement looks different. According to TRAC data current as of February 2026, 73.6% of the 68,289 people in ICE detention had no criminal convictions. FactCheck.org reported that in January 2026, approximately 29% of ICE detainees had criminal convictions, down from about 54% in February 2025. The number of detained people with no convictions or pending charges rose from 869 in December 2024 to 25,193 in January 2026.
An analysis of ICE arrest data from January 20 to October 15, 2025, found 36.5% of those arrested had prior criminal convictions, 29.8% faced pending charges, and roughly 33% had neither. The share without any criminal record grew steadily, from about 22% in the first three months to over 40% by mid-October 2025. Among those with convictions, only about 5% had violent criminal convictions, according to a Cato Institute analysis of leaked ICE data. The Migration Policy Institute found the share of ICE-arrested detainees with a criminal conviction fell from 65% in October 2024 to 35% by September 2025, while the share with no criminal charges at all rose from 6% to 35% over the same period.
DHS officials, including Secretary Kristi Noem and border czar Tom Homan, have said that 60% to 70% of those arrested by ICE are “criminals,” a figure that folds people with pending charges in with those actually convicted. DHS has not released public data to back up claims that arrested individuals without U.S. records have criminal histories abroad.
Gang Activity and Tren de Aragua
CBP also tracks gang-affiliated apprehensions. Through early fiscal year 2026, Border Patrol recorded 181 gang-affiliated apprehensions. The largest groups were Paisas (68), Surenos (18), MS-13 (15), and Tren de Aragua (13).
Tren de Aragua, which originated as a prison gang in Venezuela in the mid-2000s, has drawn particular federal attention and has been designated a foreign terrorist organization. As of May 2026, the Department of Justice had federally charged over 260 TdA members and associates since January 2025. A nationwide crackdown announced that month resulted in the seizure of over 80 firearms, approximately 18 kilograms of narcotics including fentanyl and cocaine, and more than $100,000 in currency, with prosecutions filed in six federal districts. Members have been arrested in at least ten states for crimes including drug and firearms trafficking, kidnapping, commercial sex trafficking, extortion, and robbery.
Sanctuary Jurisdictions and Crime
Research on sanctuary jurisdictions, meaning localities that decline to hold people for ICE beyond their scheduled release date, has generally found these policies do not increase crime and may be linked to lower crime. A Center for American Progress analysis found 35.5 fewer crimes per 10,000 people in sanctuary counties compared to nonsanctuary counties, with higher median incomes and lower poverty and unemployment rates. A 2022 study in Social Science Research by a University of Texas at Austin researcher analyzed over 3,100 U.S. counties and found that after 2014, both property and violent crime rates decreased more in sanctuary counties than in nonsanctuary counties.
Law enforcement organizations including the International Association of Chiefs of Police and the Major Cities Chiefs Association have said local involvement in immigration enforcement creates a “chilling effect” that makes immigrants less willing to report crimes or cooperate with investigations, regardless of their own legal status.
Immigrants as Crime Victims
The statistical picture is incomplete without the victim side. A Cato Institute analysis of 2017–2023 data found immigrants were 44% less likely to be victims of violent crime than U.S.-born Americans. Violent crimes against immigrants were reported to police 15% more frequently than those against U.S.-born victims, and immigrant victims were 29% more likely to personally report crimes to police. Between 2017 and 2023, immigrant cooperation with police led to approximately 457,000 arrests, including 300,000 for violent crimes.
Undocumented immigrants face distinct vulnerabilities. Noncitizens are often reluctant to contact police for fear that any interaction could lead to deportation for themselves or family members. A National Institute of Justice study found 67% of criminal justice officials agreed that recent immigrants report crimes less frequently than other victims, citing language barriers, cultural differences, and fear of authorities. The Cato Institute warned that immigrant crime reporting “might fall in response to the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts,” noting that enforcement arrangements in several states now “permit the arrest and transfer of crime victims” to immigration authorities.