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 465,000 criminal noncitizens have been booked into local Texas jails between June 1, 2011, and November 30, 2025, of which over 334,000 were classified as illegal noncitizens by DHS.
Between June 1, 2011, and November 30, 2025, these 334,000 illegal noncitizens were charged with more than 592,000 criminal offenses which included arrests for 1,107 homicide charges; 77,448 assault charges; 10,512 burglary charges; 69,261 drug charges; 1,499 kidnapping charges; 30,143 theft charges; 46,776 obstructing police charges; 3,368 robbery charges; 7,586 sexual assault charges; 8,608 sexual offense charges; and 7,493 weapon charges. DPS criminal history records reflect those criminal charges have thus far resulted in over 221,000 convictions including 585 homicide convictions; 28,752 assault convictions; 5,405 burglary convictions; 28,474 drug convictions; 431 kidnapping convictions; 11,440 theft convictions; 18,061 obstructing police convictions; 1,965 robbery convictions; 3,785 sexual assault convictions; 3,905 sexual offense convictions; and 2,446 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 34,000 individuals who were identified by DHS as in the country illegally while they were incarcerated at TDCJ. 11,000 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 November 30, 2025, these 11,000 individual identified as illegal noncitizens while in prison, but who were not previously identified through Secure Communities, were charged with more than 11,000 criminal offenses which included arrests for 154 homicide charges; 1,542 assault charges; 616 burglary charges; 2,013 drug charges; 71 kidnapping charges; 563 theft charges; 1,111 obstructing police charges; 457 robbery charges; 986 sexual assault charges; 479 sexual offense charges; and 287 weapon charges. DPS criminal history records reflect those criminal charges have thus far resulted in over 6,000 convictions including 118 homicide convictions; 900 assault convictions; 387 burglary convictions; 1,104 drug convictions; 40 kidnapping convictions; 304 theft convictions; 490 obstructing police convictions; 334 robbery convictions; 722 sexual assault convictions; 343 sexual offense convictions; and 115 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 November 30, 2025, 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 November 30, 2025, 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 November 30, 2025.
- 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 465,000 criminal noncitizens have been booked into local Texas jails between June 1, 2011, and November 30, 2025, of which over 334,000 were classified as illegal noncitizens by DHS.
Over the course of their entire Texas criminal careers, these 334,000 illegal noncitizens were charged with more than 805,000 criminal offenses which included arrests for 1,713 homicide charges; 102,241 assault charges; 21,912 burglary charges; 97,549 drug charges; 1,858 kidnapping charges; 46,083 theft charges; 68,406 obstructing police charges; 5,664 robbery charges; 10,110 sexual assault charges; 11,306 sexual offense charges; and 12,283 weapon charges. DPS criminal history records reflect those criminal charges have thus far resulted in over 340,000 convictions including 883 homicide convictions; 40,318 assault convictions; 11,098 burglary convictions; 44,861 drug convictions; 568 kidnapping convictions; 19,542 theft convictions; 29,736 obstructing police convictions; 3,130 robbery convictions; 5,229 sexual assault convictions; 5,556 sexual offense convictions; and 4,678 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 34,000 individuals who were identified by DHS as in the country illegally while they were incarcerated at TDCJ. 11,000 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 11,000 individuals identified as illegal noncitizens while in prison, were charged with more than 50,000 criminal offenses which included arrests for 1,954 homicide charges; 6,009 assault charges; 3,545 burglary charges; 7,192 drug charges; 362 kidnapping charges; 2,826 theft charges; 3,955 obstructing police charges; 2,495 robbery charges; 3,305 sexual assault charges; 1,342 sexual offense charges; and 1,606 weapon charges. DPS criminal history records reflect those criminal charges have thus far resulted in over 27,000 convictions including 1,177 homicide convictions; 3,097 assault convictions; 1,945 burglary convictions; 4,146 drug convictions; 166 kidnapping convictions; 1,360 theft convictions; 1,791 obstructing police convictions; 1,690 robbery convictions; 2,174 sexual assault convictions; 850 sexual offense convictions; and 625 weapon convictions.
The reports used to update the above data were ran on December 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.