The media narrative against President Donald Trump’s effort to enforce immigration law was on full display last week at a White House press briefing.
“Earlier you were just defending ICE agents . . . that they were doing everything correctly,” Niall Stanage of The Hill challenged Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.
“Thirty-two people died in ICE custody last year; 170 US citizens were detained by ICE. And, uh, Renee Good was shot in the head and killed . . . How does that equate to them doing everything correctly?”
Countless news stories have amplified fears that under Trump, federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are wildly violating basic rights.
NPR, to cite just one example, recently claimed that “many” American citizens “have been mistaken” for illegal immigrants, and that there’s “a long history of immigration agencies not having a good track record.”
But the numbers tell a very different story about how ICE is doing under Trump.
Let’s set the baseline: Between the president’s Jan. 20, 2025 inauguration and the end of November, Trump’s administration arrested an extraordinary total of 595,000 illegal aliens and deported 605,000.
The 170 ICE-detained US citizens cited in Stanage’s diatribe included about 130 arrested for interfering with or assaulting officers, according to the left-leaning ProPublica — justifiable under any reading of the law.
Only about 40 or so of those who were detained claimed to be US citizens accidentally or erroneously arrested by ICE, and just half of those people were held for more than a day; most were released in a few hours.
Any error is serious, but 40 mistakes out of 595,000 arrests amounts to an error rate of just 0.0067% — roughly one wrongful detention for every 14,925 arrests.
Compare that with the final two years of President Barack Obama’s administration.
In fiscal years 2015 and 2016, ICE recorded 263 mistaken arrests, 54 mistaken detentions (book-ins), and four mistaken removals.
During those two years, ICE made a mere 239,645 arrests, meaning the 54 mistaken detentions alone produced an Obama error rate of 0.0225% — about one mistake for every 4,444 arrests.
Overall, the error rate under Obama was 3.36 times higher than under Trump.
Unfortunately, there’s no comparable public data for other past administrations, or the rest of the Obama years.
As further evidence of ICE’s irresponsibility, Stanage charged that “32 people died in ICE custody last year.”
That claim, however, misleads without context; the numbers only make sense when compared across administrations.
During the course of Obama’s two terms, from 2009 to 2017, 56 individuals died in ICE custody.
That administration didn’t publish clear detention totals, but the closest available figures show about 498,646 detentions and deportations over five fiscal years, an average of roughly 99,729 per year.
If that annual rate held throughout the entire administration, ICE processed about 797,834 individuals.
Under that estimate, 56 deaths translates into a rate of 0.007% — roughly one death for every 14,314 detainees.
By comparison, the rate last year under Trump was slightly lower: 0.0054%, or one death for every 18,594 detainees.
Both those figures are substantially below the average death rate for the detainee age group.
Stanage’s rant omitted one key data point: the number of Americans accidentally deported.
The reason for him not doing so is straightforward — none occurred.
That’s right, for all the tumult and fury, ICE under Trump made no erroneous deportations through November.
By contrast, ICE under Obama deported two US citizens in fiscal year 2015, and two more in fiscal year 2016.
All the media lies and distortions bring disturbing real-world impacts.
Amid the drumbeat of slanted coverage, 57% of Americans now disapprove of how ICE enforces immigration laws, a Quinnipiac University survey found this month, with only 40% saying they approve of ICE’s actions.
Another recent poll, conducted by CNN/SSRS, found that 51% of adults now say ICE enforcement is making cities less safe.
The critics’ demonization tactics are making federal agents’ jobs considerably more dangerous.
Assaults on federal immigration officers increased by 1,347% in 2025, as agents experienced a terrifying 8,000% surge in death threats.
Car attacks on ICE agents spiked by 3,200%, The Post reports.
And in just the last few days, hackers leaked the home addresses and personal identifying information of about 4,500 employees of ICE and the US Border Patrol — multiplying the risks to their safety.
No federal agency is perfect. In immigration enforcement, as in all law enforcement operations, mistakes will be made.
But the media’s lack of perspective on the data, and its refusal to put the numbers in context, is putting a match to an explosive public debate.
Responsible journalism should inform us, not distort reality — or fuel hostility toward those doing a difficult and dangerous job.
John R. Lott Jr. is president of the Crime Prevention Research Center. He served as senior adviser for research and statistics in the US Department of Justice in 2020-21.
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