The Feds' 'Worst of the Worst' Database Is Stuffed with Nonviolent Offenders. Who Exactly Is ICE Arresting?

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced a new database on Tuesday, highlighting “the worst of the worst criminal aliens arrested by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).” Dubbed the “dictionary of depravity” in a post on X, the DHS data categorize just 4 percent of immigration arrests since President Donald Trump took office in January as “the worst of the worst.” At a congressional hearing on Thursday, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem faced tough questions about why the agency’s deportation reality doesn’t match its claim of targeting violent criminals.

Of the roughly 281,000 people arrested by ICE from January 20 through December 9, fewer than 10,000 individuals are classified as “the worst of the worst” by the DHS, according to analysis done by the Cato Institute’s Director of Immigration Studies, David Bier. Of those classified, “a majority (56 percent) of the list has not been charged or convicted of a violent crime,” according to Bier, “and nearly a quarter…had nothing but a vice, immigration (e.g., illegal entry), or non-DUI traffic charge.” Thousands of faces and names have been placed on the DHS’ list for minor offenses, like drug possession charges. 

The DHS database tracks closely with previous findings by Bier. After analyzing data on immigration arrests between October 1, 2024, and June 14, 2025, Bier found that 65 percent of people arrested by ICE had no criminal convictions, and 93 percent had no violent convictions. Even more recently, data on individuals booked into ICE custody since October 1 showed an increase in the number of detainees with no criminal convictions—73 percent—and even fewer people with violent convictions—only 5 percent. (Note that Bier’s analysis estimated an even higher percentage of violent criminals in ICE custody than the new DHS database.) 

The DHS’ own data now confirm that the majority of individuals being targeted in the Trump administration’s immigration raids are simply not the “worst of the worst criminal aliens.” 

This point was further exemplified during a House Homeland Security hearing on Thursday, in which Rep. Seth Magaziner (D–R.I.) asked Noem to answer for the deportation of Sae Joon Park, a U.S. Army combat veteran who had a green card and received a Purple Heart, who joined the hearing via Zoom. 

Park was deployed at the age of 19 to Panama in 1989. There, he was struck by gunfire. Upon returning home and being honorably discharged, he began experiencing symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and turned to drugs to cope, according to NBC News. In 2007, Park pleaded guilty to drug possession and went to prison in 2009 after not complying with a drug treatment program and failing to return to court. 

After serving three years in prison, Park received a removal order. But rather than deporting, Park attended annual check-ins with ICE until his latest check-in in early June, in which he was given an ankle monitor and ordered to self-deport within three weeks. Park is now in South Korea, a country he hadn’t lived in since he was 7 years old. 

Magaziner also asked Noem about the immigration case of an Irish woman, the wife of Navy combat veteran Jim Brown, who was present during the hearing. Brown’s wife, who immigrated legally to the U.S. 48 years ago, has been held in custody for the last four months. She faces deportation for the crime of writing two bad checks, totaling $80, 10 years ago, according to Magaziner. 

Noem defended the DHS’ actions by asserting that it isn’t her “prerogative, latitude, or…job to pick and choose which laws in [the United States] get enforced,” and that the laws must be followed and enforced. Magaziner pushed back, stating that Noem has broad discretion in these cases that she is choosing not to use.

It’s clear the DHS is using a relatively small number of immigrants who have committed violent crimes to justify a slew of rights violations, including excessive force, due process violations, and overcrowded, inhumane conditions in detention facilities as a means to achieve one of the Trump administration’s chief goals: deporting 1 million people by the end of the year. Given this reality, Noem’s suggestion that the current methods of immigration enforcement are done in the name of following the law rings hollow.

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