Most Deportation Cases Still Not Tied to Criminal Activity

Despite rhetoric from the Trump administration emphasizing a focus on the “worst of the worst,” immigration court data shows that the vast majority of deportation cases continue to center on administrative violations rather than criminal conduct.

In February 2026, the Department of Homeland Security filed only 741 Notices to Appear (NTAs) based on alleged criminal activity. This accounted for just 2% of all new cases initiated that month. The remaining 98% were tied to immigration violations such as unlawful entry or visa overstays.

This figure is even lower than February 2025 during Trump’s second term when 821 NTAs were issued for criminal reasons, representing 4% of total filings. It also falls below figures recorded during the Joe Biden administration, with 883 in 2023 and 794 in 2024.

The downward trend is not new. Around 25 years ago, at the end of the Bill Clinton administration and the beginning of George W. Bush’s term, criminal-related immigration cases reached roughly 3,000 per month, making up as much as 20% of the total. The peak occurred in 2010 under Barack Obama, when filings exceeded 4,000. Since then, both the volume and proportion of such cases have steadily declined, including during Trump’s first term.

A report released this week by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse highlights that, despite tough political messaging, immigration enforcement has increasingly targeted individuals without criminal records. Cases involving national security or terrorism remain extremely rare of the 741 criminal-related filings in February, only four involved national security concerns, and none were related to terrorism.

With more than 3.3 million cases pending in immigration courts, the backlog is largely made up of asylum claims and civil immigration violations, further reducing the relative share of criminal cases.

TRAC has documented this pattern for over a decade. The February 2026 data suggests that, at least in the initial stages of new cases, the promised crackdown on criminal offenders has yet to significantly materialize within the court system.

The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to requests for comment. However, administration officials maintain that some removals occur through expedited administrative processes outside the traditional court system.

The gap between official messaging and actual data is likely to continue fueling debate over the true priorities of U.S. immigration enforcement policy.