According to a Washington Post report, data made public by the Deportation Data Project shows that ICE is arresting “soaring numbers of immigrants with no criminal record.” 

A report from The New York Times noted that most of the immigrants arrested in recent months were accused of violating only civil immigration laws, not criminal laws. The Times added that immigrants from whom the administration had stripped legal status have become a new focus of the president's mass deportation campaign.

And a June ABC report highlighted that “only 3% of individuals detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement during the first 14 months of the second Trump administration had a violent felony conviction.”

Media Matters analyzed every Fox News segment about ICE actions from June 1 through September 13, 2026. Of the 113 segments about ICE actions, only 3 acknowledged that ICE is primarily targeting immigrants with no criminal record.

Of those 3 segments, 2 came from The Story With Martha MacCallum, with the mentions of noncriminal immigrant arrests coming from Democratic guests running for Congress. The third segment appeared on America's Newsroom when Fox’s Bill Melugin mentioned “ICE’s detractors,” who pointed out that the majority of arrestees were noncriminals; Melugin then teed up ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Acting Assistant Director Patricia Hyde to declare, “If you’re in the country illegally, you are a criminal.”

Out of Fox News' 113 segments about ICE actions, 69% (78 total) suggested that ICE actions were primarily targeting immigrants with criminal records or highlighted specific immigrants with prior convictions. 

Of those 78 segments, 57 went a step further by suggesting that the immigrants being targeted by ICE were primarily violent criminals who threatened public safety.

The network's flagship morning show, Fox & Friends, led all shows, with 15 segments about ICE actions, including 12 suggesting that ICE’s targets were primarily immigrants with criminal histories. Of those 12 segments, 9 suggested that ICE targeted primarily violent criminal offenders. Meanwhile, none of the segments acknowledged that the majority of immigrants arrested by ICE had no criminal record.

As the network largely ignored the noncriminal arrest data, it also regularly fearmongered about individual immigrants accused of violent crimes, often displaying mugshots and listing out alleged offenses.

Despite a recent analysis of federal data showing that only 3% of individuals detained by ICE have a violent felony conviction, Fox News' “news-side” programming often misleadingly suggested that ICE was targeting primarily violent criminals in its immigration actions.

Fox’s “news-side” programs Fox News @ Night (6 segments), The Faulkner Focus (4), and America Reports (4) were among the leaders in suggesting that the majority of ICE actions primarily targeted violent criminals. Even on Special Report With Bret Baier — often touted as the network's flagship “straight-news” program — 3 of the program's 7 segments about ICE actions suggested that ICE was primarily targeting violent criminal immigrants.

Further, a majority of correspondent segments (15 of 26), typically presented as “straight-news” segments, pushed the narrative that ICE was primarily targeting violent criminal immigrants.

As the administration pursues record high deportation numbers, Fox News has continued to echo the administration's preferred narratives — misleadingly emphasizing alleged criminality while obscuring the true scale of noncriminal arrests and the human consequences.

Media Matters searched transcripts in the SnapStream video database for all original programming on Fox News Channel for any of the terms “Immigration and Customs Enforcement,” “ICE,” “Department of Homeland Security,” “Homeland Security,” “Noem,” “Homan,” “Lyons,” or “DHS” within close proximity of any of the terms “alien,” “illegal,” “undocumented,” or any variations of any of the terms “migrant,” “immigrant,” “convict,” “felon,” or “criminal” and also within close proximity of any of the terms “raid,” “round up,” or “detention” or any variations of any of the terms “detain,” “deport,” or “arrest” from June 1, 2026, through September 13, 2026. 

We included segments, which we defined as instances when Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids, arrests, or deportations of immigrants were the stated topic of discussion or when we found significant discussion of such ICE actions. We defined significant discussion as instances when two or more speakers in a multitopic segment discussed any such ICE actions with one another

We then reviewed the identified segments for whether they included any of the following misrepresentations of the ICE data:

• Suggesting that ICE raids, arrests, or deportations are primarily targeting immigrants with prior criminal convictions or charges or immigrants newscasters describe as having prior criminal convictions or charges.
• Highlighting specific immigrants with prior criminal charges or convictions or immigrants newscasters describe as having prior criminal convictions or charges in segments about ICE raids, arrests, or deportations of immigrants.

If the segment included speech that met the above criteria, analysts also reviewed those segments for whether any speaker identified the criminal conviction or charge as violent (murder, rape, larceny, or assault).

Finally, we reviewed segments for whether they identified or provided context that:

• Suggested that ICE raids, arrests, or deportations are primarily targeting noncriminal immigrants or immigrants newscasters describe as not having prior criminal convictions or charges.
• Highlighted specific immigrants without prior criminal charges or convictions or immigrants newscasters describe as not having prior criminal convictions or charges in segments about ICE raids, arrests, or deportations of immigrants.