EXCLUSIVE: The White House and Department of Homeland Security are pushing back on “false narratives” being advanced by the mainstream media and bringing the receipts after the Washington Post and New York Times reported that noncriminal ICE arrests are skyrocketing under President Donald Trump.
The Washington Post reported last week that ICE is arresting “soaring numbers” of “noncriminal” illegal immigrants. The outlet said the agency had “detained more people without a criminal record this year than in all of 2025.” The New York Times took a similar line, reporting that “ICE arrests soar as people with no criminal record are increasingly targeted.”
However, Lauren Bis, a special assistant to the president and White House spokeswoman, told Fox News Digital that though “nearly 70% of illegal aliens arrested by ICE have been convicted or charged with a crime in the United States,” the “actual arrests of public safety threats and criminals is much higher.” This, she said, is due to many of the “noncriminal” illegal immigrants arrested by ICE having prior criminal history in their home country, including murder, child sex abuse and gang activity.
“These are just a few of the media’s ‘non-criminals,’” said Bis, adding, “Why does the mainstream media continue to peddle false narratives protecting criminal illegal aliens?”
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Fox News Digital reached out to the Washington Post and New York Times for comment.
According to the Department of Homeland Security, “Nearly 70% of illegal aliens ICE arrested across the country have criminal convictions or pending criminal charges just in the U.S.”
The agency said, however, that this statistic “doesn’t account for those wanted for violent crimes in their home country or another country, INTERPOL notices, human rights abusers, gang members, terrorists” and other offenses in foreign countries.
While DHS has emphasized that entering the country unlawfully constitutes a crime, the agency has previously shed light on some of the serious criminal charges of individuals considered noncriminal arrests.
This May, Homeland Security Investigations arrested Salvadoran national Josue Saul Garcia-Lopez, who, despite not having a U.S. criminal record, had an international warrant showing him as an active member of the foreign terrorist organization MS-13 and had been involved in extortion and robbery schemes in El Salvador for several years.
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Just days before, ICE had also arrested a Honduran national named Fredy Alexander Lopez Lara, who had an international warrant for homicide in his home country.
Another MS-13 member, Salvadoran national Danny Granados-Garcia, was arrested by ICE in April. He was wanted in his home country for murdering a pastor.
In March, San Diego Sector Border Patrol agents arrested Mexican national Salvador Suazo-Garcia in Lemon Grove, California, processed him administratively, and turned him over to Mexican authorities. Suazo-Garcia entered the U.S. legally in May 2021 under the Biden administration. He was wanted in Mexico for lewd and lascivious acts upon a child.
Shortly before Suazo-Garcia’s arrest, Border Patrol agents also arrested a female illegal immigrant from Mexico named Silvia Del Rosario Torres-Castro, who was wanted in her home country for homicide.
Late last year, ICE arrested Antonio Israel Lazo-Quintanilla, a Salvadoran national who is a member of another foreign terrorist organization called the 18th Street Gang. DHS said that “while technically his only crime in the United States is driving without a license,” Lazo-Quintanilla was on El Salvador’s most wanted gang members’ list and was wanted for aggravated homicide, extortion, possession of drugs and other felonies. Lazo-Quintanilla’s mugshot showed his face covered in tattoos, including the numbers “666” across his forehead.
Months before that, DHS said that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested Mexican brothers Pedro Luis Ortiz-Mendez and Jose Vicente Ortiz-Mendez in Texas. Both brothers are wanted for multiple murders tied to an attack on a festival in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, where at least one victim was shot and another victim was attacked with a machete.
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Bis said that “these are just a few examples of murderers, gang members, and pedophiles the media refers to as ‘non-criminals’ because they only have criminal records in their home country.”
“No one would want these heinous criminals to be their neighbors,” she said. “From foreign fugitives, gang members, and terrorists, ICE is getting the worst of the worst off our streets and out of our country.”
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