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The Department of Homeland Security section when Los Angeles became the epicenter of President Trump’s crackdown on undocumented immigrants. Kristi Noem flew to the city and held a news conference saying the government’s aim was to “bring criminals who have come out of our streets for too long.”
However, data from the days leading up to that appearance until June 12 suggests that the majority of those arrested were not convicted offenders. Most were workers, almost half of the Mexicans.
From June 1 to June 10, immigration and customs enforcement data show that the initial 722 of the crackdown were arrested in the Los Angeles area. The figures were obtained by the Deportation Data Project, a storage for enforcement data for the UC Berkeley Act.
The Times analysis found that 69% of those arrested during that period were not criminally convicted, while 58% were never charged with a crime. The median age of the person arrested is 38 years old, and it is likely that he is a man. Almost 48% were Mexican, 16% were from Guatemala and 8% from El Salvador.
“They aren’t chasing the drug Kingpins. They chase hardworking people through swap meetings and the parking lot at Home Depot,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass told The Times. “You can see the effects of these random assaults everywhere in our city. Families are scared to eat at restaurants. Children are scared to have their parents coming back from the store – they are afraid as they saw a video of people being pushed into vans that are not marked by masked men who refuse to identify themselves, so they are afraid.”
The Trump administration has hit the point that it targets “worst, worst, worst,” but several datasets released by Immigration Customs recently show that the proportion of people picked up without a criminal conviction has increased as it becomes Los Angeles’ standard.
The data covers seven counties of areas, from San Luis Obispo to the north to Orange County in the south. Experts told the Times that data confirmed what many supporters and officials were saying. Many were run in outdoor locations, including car washes, Home Depot parking and street vending spots. Immigration advocates and local officials say the lack of designated targets indicates that federal agents are simply racially profiled. It’s allegations that Los Angeles officials are using it to lay the foundation for the lawsuit.
Homeland Security officials say the efforts are being targeted.
“DHS’s executive operations are highly targeted and our officers are doing due diligence,” said DHS Deputy Chief Tricia McLaughlin. “We know who is targeting us in advance. If we meet the individuals that are being arrested, our law enforcement agencies are trained to ask a series of well-determined questions to determine their status and removability.”
Nationally, the number of people arrested without a criminal conviction jumped significantly, with many of those convicted being non-violent offenders.
“ICE doesn’t primarily detain people who are threats to public safety,” said David Bier, director of immigration studies at Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank that leaked government data. “The very few serious violent offenders are in the minority, with only 7% of those in custody.”
ICE does not release data on the criminal history of detainees who have been detained. However, Cato’s private data shows that about nine out of 10 people have never been convicted of a violent or property crime, with 30% having no criminal history. The most common crimes are immigration and traffic crimes.
“That’s important because the Department of Homeland Security is doing a huge amount of money on deportation efforts that are concentrated on people with serious criminal records,” he said.
He also analyzed UC Berkeley legal data reflecting ice arrests and found that nationwide five times more uncriminal immigrants were arrested last year compared to the same period in 2017. He called the number “amazing.” In June alone, he noted that the agency had arrested 6,000 people without criminal convictions.
“75% of these arrests under this administration are illegal aliens who have been criminally convicted or pending accusations,” McLaughlin said Monday.
Public data reveals that the figures are 70% over the course of Trump’s second term, but have been low in recent weeks.
That data shows ICE booked 204,297 people at detention facilities in the past fiscal year. This number is considered an appropriate approximation of an arrest.
Of those, 38% of those booked were not convicted of the crime a week before Trump took office for the second time. Five months after his term, that number grew to 63%.
Cato’s non-public data shows that the biggest criminal convictions follow immigration, followed by traffic violations, assaults and drug claims.
Beer pins the shift to Stephen Miller, the deputy chief of staff at White House. Stephen Miller reportedly instructed Top Ice officials to go beyond their target list and arrest people at Home Depot or 7-Eleven convenience stores.
The wider sweep highlights the ability of the detention system to report moldy food, dirty towels and changes in clothing for more than a week at a time.
About 39,000 people were in custody a week before Trump took office. By June 15th, that figure had risen 42% to 56,397.
“We’re approaching historic highs,” said Austin Cochell, an assistant professor at Syracuse University, who tracks immigration data.
And that number could grow. The administration called on Congress to fund 100,000 detention beds.
Times staff writer Andrea Castillo and data and graphics journalists Lorena Elevy and Sean Green contributed to this story.
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