ICE Warns Undocumented Migrants Will Be Arrested, Regardless of Criminal Record

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/story/ice-arrests-undocumented-migrants-no-criminal-record

ICE Warns Undocumented Migrants Will Be Arrested, Regardless of Criminal Record
“One difference you'll see now,” US Immigration and Customs Enforcement acting director Todd Lyons told CBS News, “is under this administration, we have opened up the whole aperture of the immigration portfolio.”
By Katie Herchenroeder
July 20, 2025

The head of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Todd Lyons, told CBS News in an exclusive interview that his agents are going to arrest any undocumented migrants they can find, even if they have no criminal record, confirming that the agency’s detainment and deportation operation has no plans of slowing down.

“ICE is always focused on the worst of the worst,” Lyons, currently the acting director, said during his first sit-down network interview on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.” “One difference you’ll see now,” he continued,” is under this administration, we have opened up the whole aperture of the immigration portfolio.”

In the interview, Lyons confirmed to CBS’s Camilo Montoya-Galvez that the breadth and intensity of ICE’s offensive is set to increase following an influx of billions of dollars from President Donald Trump’s spending package. The head of the immigration authority decried sanctuary cities, vowed that the agency would go after employers who hired immigrants without documentation, held that ICE agents would continue to hide their faces at work, and said that Trump’s goal of deporting one million people within a year is “possible.”

Being in the country without documentation is not a criminal offense, but a civil one. According to an Axios review of government data, less than 0.5% of the 1.8 million cases in immigration courts during the last fiscal year included deportation orders for alleged crimes other than entering the US without documentation. Since Trump took office, the president and immigration officials have construed their operations as successfully removing hordes of dangerous people from the country. Yet, according to an ICE document obtained by CBS News, most of the documented infractions used to justify deportation were not violent.

In documents reviewed by CBS, ICE claims that, of the estimated 100,000 people deported between January 1 and June 24, 70,583 were convicted criminals. “However,” CBS found, “the data also shows that most of the documented infractions were traffic or immigration offenses.”

The Trump administration’s messaging, though, has been consistent for months: If someone does not have proper documentation, they are criminals subject to ICE’s campaign.

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