A Minnesota immigration attorney says she's not surprised that less than 14% of immigrants arrested by immigration enforcement across the U.S. reportedly had no charges or convictions for violent crimes.
That information coming from a new report via CBS News, who examined internal Department of Homeland Security information.
The DHS documents obtained by CBS News found of the nearly 400,000 immigrants arrested by ICE since President Trumps first year back in the White House, only 14% had charges or criminal convictions.
However, the agency notes in a statment that "drug trafficking, distribution of child pornography, burglary, and fraud, are all categorized as 'nonviolent crimes.'" Those facts are in question, mostly because the DHS has not shared details about those arrests.
Carrie Peltier represents about 100 immigrants in the Twin Cities. She says not one of them has a violent criminal record.
"So the people with serious criminal convictions, by and large, are not getting picked up from the community," Peltier says. "People who are convicted of those things are generally placed on an ICE hold, and then they're transferred to ICE. They're not released into the community."
The numbers appear to prove her to be correct. So far, less than one-in-five immigrants arrested by ICE had charges or convictions for violent crimes.
"Of all of my clients that have been detained thus far, none of them have had criminal convictions beyond a parking ticket for a snow emergency," Peltier adds.