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 395,000 criminal aliens have been booked into local Texas jails between June 1, 2011, and February 28, 2023, of which over 273,000 were classified as illegal aliens by DHS.
Between June 1, 2011, and February 28, 2023, these 273,000 illegal aliens were charged with more than 462,000 criminal offenses which included arrests for 861 homicide charges; 56,685 assault charges; 8,497 burglary charges; 55,753 drug charges; 927 kidnapping charges; 22,607 theft charges; 36,158 obstructing police charges; 2,602 robbery charges; 5,863 sexual assault charges; 6,825 sexual offense charges; and 5,455 weapon charges. DPS criminal history records reflect those criminal charges have thus far resulted in over 171,000 convictions including 419 homicide convictions; 21,215 assault convictions; 4,360 burglary convictions; 23,742 drug convictions; 284 kidnapping convictions; 9,031 theft convictions; 14,780 obstructing police convictions; 1,504 robbery convictions; 2,787 sexual assault convictions; 3,204 sexual offense convictions; and 1,855 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 31,000 individuals who were identified by DHS as in the country illegally while they were incarcerated at TDCJ. 10,664 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 February 28, 2023, these 10,664 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 125 homicide charges; 1199 assault charges; 547 burglary charges; 1,687 drug charges; 49 kidnapping charges; 451 theft charges; 841 obstructing police charges; 363 robbery charges; 780 sexual assault charges; 355 sexual offense charges; and 221 weapon charges. DPS criminal history records reflect those criminal charges have thus far resulted in over 5,000 convictions including 98 homicide convictions; 715 assault convictions; 360 burglary convictions; 954 drug convictions; 29 kidnapping convictions; 241 theft convictions; 380 obstructing police convictions; 278 robbery convictions; 571 sexual assault convictions; 256 sexual offense convictions; and 88 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 February 28, 2023 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 February 28, 2023 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 February 28, 2023.
- 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 395,000 criminal aliens have been booked into local Texas jails between June 1, 2011, and February 28, 2023, of which over 273,000 were classified as illegal aliens by DHS.
Over the course of their entire Texas criminal careers, these 273,000 illegal aliens were charged with more than 663,000 criminal offenses which included arrests for 1,440 homicide charges; 79,921 assault charges; 19,319 burglary charges; 82,540 drug charges; 1267 kidnapping charges; 37,556 theft charges; 56,529 obstructing police charges; 4,776 robbery charges; 8,276 sexual assault charges; 9,358 sexual offense charges; and 9,919 weapon charges. DPS criminal history records reflect those criminal charges have thus far resulted in over 282,000 convictions including 696 homicide convictions; 32,022 assault convictions; 9,761 burglary convictions; 39,243 drug convictions; 411 kidnapping convictions; 16,635 theft convictions; 25,783 obstructing police convictions; 2,602 robbery convictions; 4,185 sexual assault convictions; 4,753 sexual offense convictions; and 3,925 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 31,000 individuals who were identified by DHS as in the country illegally while they were incarcerated at TDCJ. 10,664 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 10,664 individuals identified as illegal aliens while in prison, were charged with more than 48,000 criminal offenses which included arrests for 1,935 homicide charges; 5,745 assault charges; 3,518 burglary charges; 6,913 drug charges; 350 kidnapping charges; 2,740 theft charges; 3,721 obstructing police charges; 2,427 robbery charges; 3,112 sexual assault charges; 1,219 sexual offense charges; and 1,576 weapon charges. DPS criminal history records reflect those criminal charges have thus far resulted in over 26,000 convictions including 1,164 homicide convictions; 2,956 assault convictions; 1,934 burglary convictions; 4,016 drug convictions; 158 kidnapping convictions; 1,306 theft convictions; 1,699 obstructing police convictions; 1,652 robbery convictions; 2,031 sexual assault convictions; 762 sexual offense convictions; and 610 weapon convictions.
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The reports used to update the above data were ran on March 1, 2023. 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.