Over 443,000 criminal noncitizens booked in Texas jails

Noncitizens, including those in the country illegally, are committing crimes, and they’re being charged, imprisoned and convicted for them in Texas.

A new report by the Texas Department of Public Safety highlights the extent of criminal charges, it says, not “to allege that foreign nationals in the country illegally commit more crimes than other groups” but to identify “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.”

The data, covering roughly 13 years from June 1, 2011, through Sept. 30, 2024, represents “the minimum number of crimes associated with criminal illegal noncitizens” charged with committing state offenses.

The data is broken down into several categories based on Texas’s participation with the Department of Homeland Security’s Secure Communities program, which enables DHS to work with state and local law enforcement to take custody of those posing a danger to public safety.

The program begins at the local level where the offender is arrested and booked by a Texas law enforcement officer. Fingerprints are submitted to Texas DPS and the FBI for criminal history and warrant checks. Biometric data is sent to DHS and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to obtain immigration and removal status.

The data is reported by category: 1) those known to DHS (their fingerprints are in DHS's database); 2) those who illegally entered the country and evaded capture, known as gotaways, who were later arrested by local or state law enforcement officers for a state offense; 3) those DHS adjudicates in the immigration system held in Texas prisons.

In the first category, criminal noncitizens previously known to DHS, more than 443,000 were booked into local Texas jails during the timeframe evaluated. The majority, 314,000, were in the country illegally.

The 314,000 were charged with more than 546,000 criminal offenses, according to the report. They include arrests for homicide (1,011), assault (70,230), burglary (9,787), drugs (63,886), kidnapping (1,292), theft (27,520), obstructing police (42,581), robbery (3,123), sexual assault (6,943), sexual offense (7,953) and weapons (6,748).

These charges resulted in more than 200,000 convictions.

During this timeframe, more than 32,000 in the second category were incarcerated by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Among them, 10,738 weren’t identified through DHS’s Secure Communities program at the time of their arrest.

The 10,738 criminal illegal foreign nationals incarcerated in TDCJ facilities were charged with more than 10,000 criminal offenses, according to the report. They include arrests for homicide (134), assault (1,294), burglary (573), drugs (1,809), kidnapping (57), theft (517), obstructing police (950), robbery (375), sexual assault (834), sexual offense (397), and weapons (244).

These criminal charges resulted in more than 5,000 convictions, according to DPS records.

DPS also notes that the date the criminal noncitizens “were identified as illegal while in prison,” between June 1, 2011, and Sept. 30, 2024, “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.”

DPS also notes that “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.”

To provide “a more accurate assessment,” DPS published historical data of the Texas criminal careers of 314,000 illegal foreign nationals, which shows they were charged with more than 755,000 criminal offenses.

These include arrests for homicide (1,608), assault (94,427), burglary (21,008), drugs (91,676), kidnapping (1,645), theft (43,113), obstructing police (63,783), robbery (5,367), sexual assault (9,422), sexual offense (13,052) and weapons (11,422).

These charges resulted in more than 316,000 convictions.

When factoring in the entire Texas criminal careers of the 10,738 illegal foreign nationals incarcerated in TDCJ facilities, the charges increased to more than 48,000 criminal offenses.

DPS also notes that “the criminal activity for individuals identified as illegal while in prison is underrepresented for this time period because they may have been incarcerated during the time frame used in this report.”

The data excludes all federal and other states’ criminal charges. It also excludes foreign nationals lawfully in the U.S. charged with committing state criminal offenses.