The Department of Public Safety and local law enforcement agencies in Texas participate in the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Secure Communities. Participation in Secure Communities 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, Secure Communities 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 noncitizens” refers to an individual who has been identified as a noncitizen 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 Secure Communities
According to DHS status indicators, over 448,000 criminal noncitizens have been booked into local Texas jails between June 1, 2011, and December 31, 2024, of which over 319,000 were classified as illegal noncitizens by DHS.
Between June 1, 2011, and December 31, 2024, these 319,000 illegal noncitizens were charged with more than 558,000 criminal offenses which included arrests for 1,032 homicide charges; 72,054 assault charges; 9,989 burglary charges; 65,233 drug charges; 1,340 kidnapping charges; 28,222 theft charges; 43,510 obstructing police charges; 3,180 robbery charges; 7,088 sexual assault charges; 8,104 sexual offense charges; and 6,938 weapon charges. DPS criminal history records reflect those criminal charges have thus far resulted in over 205,000 convictions including 520 homicide convictions; 26,179 assault convictions; 5,082 burglary convictions; 26,713 drug convictions; 383 kidnapping convictions; 10,559 theft convictions; 16,897 obstructing police convictions; 1,794 robbery convictions; 3,383 sexual assault convictions; 3,671 sexual offense convictions; and 2,229 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 Secure Communities 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 33,000 individuals who were identified by DHS as in the country illegally while they were incarcerated at TDCJ. 10,968 of these individuals were not identified through the Secure Communities 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 noncitizen status was initially determined.
Lawful Presence Determined While Incarcerated at TDCJ
Between June 1, 2011 and December 31, 2024, these 10,968 individual identified as illegal noncitizens while in prison, but who were not previously identified through Secure Communities, were charged with more than 10,000 criminal offenses which included arrests for 151 homicide charges; 1,414 assault charges; 599 burglary charges; 1,913 drug charges; 64 kidnapping charges; 539 theft charges; 1,027 obstructing police charges; 423 robbery charges; 935 sexual assault charges; 430 sexual offense charges; and 273 weapon charges. DPS criminal history records reflect those criminal charges have thus far resulted in over 6,000 convictions including 116 homicide convictions; 825 assault convictions; 380 burglary convictions; 1,046 drug convictions; 35 kidnapping convictions; 283 theft convictions; 454 obstructing police convictions; 312 robbery convictions; 685 sexual assault convictions; 311 sexual offense convictions; and 110 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 December 31, 2024, does not necessarily align with the size of the population of illegal noncitizens 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 Secure Communities, we have limited the arrest and conviction counts for prison identified illegal noncitizens to the same June 1, 2011, to December 31, 2024, time frame used for individuals identified through Secure Communities.
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 noncitizens:
- 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 December 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 a noncitizen's entire criminal history.
Lawful Presence Determined Through Secure Communities
According to DHS status indicators, over 448,000 criminal noncitizens have been booked into local Texas jails between June 1, 2011, and December 31, 2024, of which over 319,000 were classified as illegal noncitizens by DHS.
Over the course of their entire Texas criminal careers, these 319,000 illegal noncitizens were charged with more than 768,000 criminal offenses which included arrests for 1,632 homicide charges; 96,454 assault charges; 21,276 burglary charges; 93,191 drug charges; 1,690 kidnapping charges; 43,922 theft charges; 64,864 obstructing police charges; 5,441 robbery charges; 9,577 sexual assault charges; 10,755 sexual offense charges; and 11,651 weapon charges. DPS criminal history records reflect those criminal charges have thus far resulted in over 321,000 convictions including 813 homicide convictions; 37,559 assault convictions; 10,737 burglary convictions; 42,915 drug convictions; 517 kidnapping convictions; 18,556 theft convictions; 28,408 obstructing police convictions; 2,945 robbery convictions; 4,817 sexual assault convictions; 5,290 sexual offense convictions; and 4,418 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 33,000 individuals who were identified by DHS as in the country illegally while they were incarcerated at TDCJ. 10,968 of these individuals were not identified through the Secure Communities 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 noncitizen status was initially determined. Over the course of their entire Texas criminal careers, these 10,968 individuals identified as illegal noncitizens while in prison, were charged with more than 49,000 criminal offenses which included arrests for 1,956 homicide charges; 5,904 assault charges; 3,543 burglary charges; 7,114 drug charges; 361 kidnapping charges; 2,805 theft charges; 3,875 obstructing police charges; 2,468 robbery charges; 3,255 sexual assault charges; 1,292 sexual offense charges; and 1,603 weapon charges. DPS criminal history records reflect those criminal charges have thus far resulted in over 26,000 convictions including 1,179 homicide convictions; 3,032 assault convictions; 1,943 burglary convictions; 4,097 drug convictions; 162 kidnapping convictions; 1,335 theft convictions; 1,754 obstructing police convictions; 1,671 robbery convictions; 2,137 sexual assault convictions; 817 sexual offense convictions; and 624 weapon convictions.
The reports used to update the above data were ran on January 1, 2025. 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.