Tipsheet

NBC News Tries and Fails to Twist Illegal Immigration Arrests

Amy Curtis
Amy Curtis  |  April 09, 2026 12:30 PM

NBC News has returned to one of the media's favorite topics: illegal immigration arrests. They never get the reporting right, of course, because the narrative is more important than the facts.

But that doesn't stop the rest of us from ratioing them into oblivion, as was done here with this dishonest and misleading headline about illegal immigration arrests.

People who are arrested are usually not convicted of a crime. That's how arrests work: you're suspected of committing a crime. In this case, being in the country illegally.

Here's what NBC wrote (emphasis added):

Arrests of immigrants without criminal convictions by ICE have surged 770%, while street arrests saw a more than 1,000% increase during the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term, according to a new analysis released Tuesday.

The analysis by the Deportation Data Project at UC Berkeley found that ICE arrests more than quadrupled in that period, with transfers from jails and prisons roughly doubling. The much-increased street arrests took place in neighborhoods, at immigration court and at ICE field offices during regular immigration check-ins, the report said.

“Arrests not in jails or prisons at this order of magnitude are a new phenomenon. For both types of arrests, ICE was much less likely to target people with criminal convictions,” according to the analysis by the Deportation Data Project, which is led by a group of academics and lawyers that collect, post and analyze government immigration enforcement data.

The changes in enforcement led to a 770% increase in immigration arrests of people without criminal convictions, according to the analysis.

That's in part because many Democrats, including Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, and others, refuse to cooperate with ICE and detain suspects in jails. Instead, they release them back into our communities where they continue to rob, rape, maim, and murder Americans.

They've all committed the crime of breaking our immigration laws. 100 percent of illegal immigrants are criminals, even without convictions.

Correct.

The word "illegal" seems to be tripping them up.

This isn't hard, and this writer's 12-year-old son understands this.

Doesn't matter if it's a misdemeanor. It's a crime punishable by deportation.

We elected Donald Trump to deport them and secure our border. Not to turn a blind eye to illegal immigration or — as some Republicans are doing — grant them amnesty and citizenship. We want deportations.

It's been clear for a while now that Democrats believe some people are, in fact, above the law.