The Department of Public Safety and local law enforcement agencies in Texas participate in the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Priority Enforcement Program (PEP). Participation in PEP enables DHS to work with state and local law enforcement to take custody of individuals who pose a danger to public safety before those individuals are released into our communities. In Texas, PEP begins at the local level when an individual is arrested and booked by a Texas law enforcement officer for a criminal violation of Texas law. The arrested individual’s fingerprints are submitted to the Texas DPS and subsequently to the FBI for criminal history and warrant checks. This same biometric data is also sent to DHS’ IDENT database so that ICE can determine the person’s immigration status and whether the individual is a priority for removal, consistent with the DHS enforcement priorities. The immigration status information is returned to DPS by DHS. The following report is based upon the status indicators provided to the DPS. For the purposes of this report, the term “criminal alien” refers to an individual who has been identified as an alien by DHS and who has been arrested for a state criminal offense, typically a Misdemeanor B or higher, committed in Texas.
Lawful Presence Determined Through PEP
According to DHS status indicators, over 435,000 criminal aliens have been booked into local Texas jails between June 1, 2011, and May 31, 2024, of which over 306,000 were classified as illegal aliens by DHS.
Between June 1, 2011, and May 31, 2024, these 306,000 illegal aliens were charged with more than 530,000 criminal offenses which included arrests for 991 homicide charges; 67,434 assault charges; 9,596 burglary charges; 62,080 drug charges; 1,223 kidnapping charges; 26,703 theft charges; 41,332 obstructing police charges; 3,043 robbery charges; 6,697 sexual assault charges; 7,713 sexual offense charges; and 6,496 weapon charges. DPS criminal history records reflect those criminal charges have thus far resulted in over 195,000 convictions including 492 homicide convictions; 24,617 assault convictions; 4,861 burglary convictions; 25,705 drug convictions; 351 kidnapping convictions; 10,044 theft convictions; 16,230 obstructing police convictions; 1,691 robbery convictions; 3,197 sexual assault convictions; 3,517 sexual offense convictions; and 2,114 weapon convictions.
These figures only count individuals who previously had an encounter with DHS that resulted in their fingerprints being entered into the DHS IDENT database. Foreign nationals who enter the country illegally and avoid detection by DHS but are later arrested by local or state law enforcement for a state offense will not have a DHS response in regard to their lawful status and do not appear in these counts. However, in addition to the PEP program, DHS actively adjudicates the immigration status of individuals incarcerated in the Texas prison system. From 2011 to date, the Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) has provided DPS with information on more than 32,000 individuals who were identified by DHS as in the country illegally while they were incarcerated at TDCJ. 10,754 of these individuals were not identified through the PEP program at the time of their arrest. DPS does not know the current incarceration status of the individuals identified while they were incarcerated nor when their alien status was initially determined.
Lawful Presence Determined While Incarcerated at TDCJ
Between June 1, 2011 and May 31, 2024, these 10,754 individual identified as illegal aliens while in prison, but who were not previously identified through PEP, were charged with more than 9,000 criminal offenses which included arrests for 134 homicide charges; 1,286 assault charges; 554 burglary charges; 1,798 drug charges; 57 kidnapping charges; 515 theft charges; 936 obstructing police charges; 376 robbery charges; 835 sexual assault charges; 397 sexual offense charges; and 241 weapon charges. DPS criminal history records reflect those criminal charges have thus far resulted in over 5,000 convictions including 104 homicide convictions; 757 assault convictions; 362 burglary convictions; 1,004 drug convictions; 32 kidnapping convictions; 266 theft convictions; 420 obstructing police convictions; 282 robbery convictions; 611 sexual assault convictions; 287 sexual offense convictions; and 100 weapon convictions.
Because DPS does not know the date these individuals were identified as illegal while in prison, the count of charges for which this population was arrested between June 1, 2011, and May 31, 2024, does not necessarily align with the size of the population of illegal aliens identified while in prison. A more accurate assessment can be seen when examining this population’s entire Texas criminal history and not just for offenses committed during this time period (see the Historical Data section of this report). However, for this report, in order to be consistent with the timeframe utilized to provide counts of arrest and conviction for the population identified through PEP, we have limited the arrest and conviction counts for prison identified illegal aliens to the same June 1, 2011, to May 31, 2024, time frame used for individuals identified through PEP.
Report Notes
These figures do not attempt to allege that foreign nationals in the country illegally commit more crimes than other groups. It simply identifies thousands of crimes that should not have occurred and thousands of victims that should not have been victimized because the perpetrator should not be here. It is also important to note that these figures represent the minimum number of crimes associated with criminal illegal aliens:
- These figures only count arrests in Texas for state offenses. These individuals may have criminal records in other states.
- These figures only represent offenses and convictions that are associated with arrest events that occurred between June 1, 2011, and May 31, 2024.
- The criminal activity for individuals identified as illegal while in prison is under represented for this time period because they may have been incarcerated during the time frame used in this report.
- These figures do not count federal criminal charges.
- These figures do not include similar data for foreign nationals who are lawfully in the country and commit state criminal offenses.
- Individuals whose lawful presence was determined while in prison may or may not be currently incarcerated.
Historical Data
Because individuals identified as being illegally present in the country may have had a Texas criminal history prior to their immigration status being known to law enforcement, DPS has traditionally published criminal history data for an alien’s entire criminal history.
Lawful Presence Determined Through PEP
According to DHS status indicators, over 435,000 criminal aliens have been booked into local Texas jails between June 1, 2011, and May 31, 2024, of which over 306,000 were classified as illegal aliens by DHS.
Over the course of their entire Texas criminal careers, these 306,000 illegal aliens were charged with more than 732,000 criminal offenses which included arrests for 1,584 homicide charges; 91,454 assault charges; 20,734 burglary charges; 89,678 drug charges; 1,575 kidnapping charges; 42,160 theft charges; 62,375 obstructing police charges; 5,276 robbery charges; 9,170 sexual assault charges; 10,336 sexual offense charges; and 11,121 weapon charges. DPS criminal history records reflect those criminal charges have thus far resulted in over 310,000 convictions including 781 homicide convictions; 35,824 assault convictions; 10,442 burglary convictions; 41,683 drug convictions; 484 kidnapping convictions; 17,903 theft convictions; 27,582 obstructing police convictions; 2,823 robbery convictions; 4,622 sexual assault convictions; 5,122 sexual offense convictions; and 4,268 weapon convictions.
Lawful Presence Determined While Incarcerated at TDCJ
From 2011 to date, the Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) has provided DPS with information on more than 32,000 individuals who were identified by DHS as in the country illegally while they were incarcerated at TDCJ. 10,754 of these individuals were not identified through the PEP program at the time of their arrest. DPS does not know the current incarceration status of the individuals identified while they were incarcerated nor when their alien status was initially determined. Over the course of their entire Texas criminal careers, these 10,754 individuals identified as illegal aliens while in prison, were charged with more than 48,000 criminal offenses which included arrests for 1,941 homicide charges; 5,793 assault charges; 3,502 burglary charges; 7,001 drug charges; 355 kidnapping charges; 2,788 theft charges; 3,788 obstructing police charges; 2,432 robbery charges; 3,160 sexual assault charges; 1,259 sexual offense charges; and 1,584 weapon charges. DPS criminal history records reflect those criminal charges have thus far resulted in over 26,000 convictions including 1,167 homicide convictions; 2,972 assault convictions; 1,926 burglary convictions; 4,055 drug convictions; 160 kidnapping convictions; 1,325 theft convictions; 1,730 obstructing police convictions; 1,648 robbery convictions; 2,067 sexual assault convictions; 793 sexual offense convictions; and 618 weapon convictions.
The reports used to update the above data were ran on June 1, 2024. This data is accurate and true on the date the reports were created. Please be advised that data can change any time after the report was processed.