For the first time this year, almost half of the people being arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Northern California have no criminal record, recent data shows.
That data also reveals that ICE arrests across Northern California more than tripled this year.
A Mission Local analysis of data released from the Deportation Data Project, a group of researchers based at the University of California, Berkeley, shows that 48 percent of the people arrested by ICE across Northern California in September had no criminal background, while 39 percent had a criminal conviction.
The remaining 14 percent had pending criminal charges.
That is a large spike from earlier months, when immigrants with either a criminal conviction or charges made up the majority of arrests in Northern California. September was the most recent full month for which data was available.
Earlier this year, President Donald Trump pledged to deport the “worst of the worst,” but the latest numbers confirm that the administration’s crackdown continues to target an increasing share of people who have committed no crimes.
Most recently, the president called for a permanent pause on all immigration from “third-world countries.”
Across the country, about 74 percent of the people in ICE detention centers have no criminal history, according to the Transaction Records Access Clearinghouse from Syracuse University.
In October, Mission Local documented a decline in the number of arrests taking place at San Francisco’s immigration courthouse, where immigrants with pending asylum cases are required to show up for routine hearings.
But overall, the total number of ICE arrests in Northern California, more than tripled between Jan. 20 and Oct. 15, 2025, compared to the same period last year. Analysis by the San Francisco Chronicle published in September also found that deportations in California were up 78 percent compared to 2024.
Those numbers are likely an undercount. For the “San Francisco Area of Responsibility,” which covers Northern California, Hawaii, Guam and Saipan, about 11 percent of the data published by ICE for 2025 did not specify the state where the arrest occurred and thus was excluded from the data we analyzed for arrests in Northern California.
The data does not include arrests made by other agencies, such as U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
The latest data shows that a growing number of people are being detained at the short-term detention facility at 630 Sansome St. In September, 246 new detention stays were recorded at the “San Francisco Hold Room,” up 67 percent compared to the previous month.
Generally, immigrants are only held there for a few hours before being moved to a longer-term facility, although Mission Local previously found that at least 38 people were detained there longer than the recommended 12 hours.
Why is there an assumption that everyone arrested must have a criminal record? If people are here illegally — and, in particular, if they have ignored a court order telling them that — then why should there be any expectation that they will not be deported? Is it really too much ask that the country has a fair, lawful and orderly immigration system?
Under our Constitution asylum seekers have rights and are not here illegally.
Donald Trump’s wife Melania and Elon Musk both committed Visa fraud. If you were serious about deporting all “illegals” that means neither one could ever apply to live in the USA ever again. Decide now if you want to pretend to be a hardliner.
Because Trump said they were all criminals.
52% of them have a criminal record but 100% of them have broken an immigration law.
And for 52% of any cohort to have a criminal record is very high and disturbing. Is there any other demographic for which the number is that high?
Exactly…
Exactly not true at all.
Not true.
The moment someone crosses our border illegally, they have committed a crime. Period.
We already have legal pathways, including seasonal work visas, for people who want to come here and contribute. There is no excuse for breaking the law to enter the country.
Stop shielding illegal immigration. If you want to work here, apply for a visa and come legally.
Nope, you know nothing about our laws.
Your comments consistiently lack any depth or insight. Try developing your arguments a little more. You’ll be a lot more convincing.
@lisa p – So you can just ignore everything written here by writing, “Period.” How intellectually invigorating.
Can I give it a whirl? Most Americans, probably including yourself, have exceeded the speed limit, or crossed the street without a light, so you’ve committed a crime. “Period.” Time for extrajudicial rendition to a lawless hellhole. Period.
The problem is that sanctuary city policies have backed our communities in a corner. You don’t have a common sense leg to stand on when you refuse to hand over criminals to immigration officers and then bemoan the arrest of undocumented immigrants who are law abiding. Zero credibility!
Trump lies, news at 11.
Some people’s ignorance of how the law works is really astonishing.
Coming to the USA and requesting Asylum is not illegal. It’s actually completely legal. When the visas are limited to such an extreme where those who have request asylum have to wait for years is the fault of the republicans who limited them. When the budgets are cut for immigration courts by the republicans and it increases the time it takes, it takes even longer. My foster kid came here when she was NINE and is now SIXTEEN. She’s totally “legal”, if you read all the damn piles of paperwork, but I can’t even legally adopt her because of republican’s working to cripple the system.
And then, you get people working off the books, because they can’t afford to live and they can’t go home and they don’t get welfare and don’t get housing and don’t get medical support, and THAT is illegal. But if they don’t, then you blame them for being a drain on society.
But… who is *really* getting deported. Go look at the statistics of COLOR and you’ll find that brown people are getting deported at a much higher ratio. Gee… I wonder why everyone says it’s racist. 48% of those held in CA have never committed any crime besides overstaying asylum hearings.
You want me to support ICE? Go send them to the damn Barrio to arrest drug smugglers instead of waiting outside schools. Go arrest some actual gang members instead of arresting old ladies as they literally walk out of the immigration building.
but they don’t. Because republicans really don’t care. They’re poor and brown. That’s it. Look deep little republicans, because the facts are right in front of you.
“But… who is *really* getting deported. Go look at the statistics of COLOR and you’ll find that brown people are getting deported at a much higher ratio.”
That is SUCH a specious argument. The overwhelming majority of illegal immigrants are from Latin America. So of course the overwhelming majority of deportees are “brown people” (as you call them). But of course it’s more comfortable for those on the hard left to explain it all away as simple racism.