The federal deployments that have swept through major cities as part of President Trump’s immigration crackdown have led to thousands of arrests. But they have been less effective at apprehending immigrants with a criminal record than more routine operations elsewhere, new data shows.

In high-profile Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in Los Angeles; Chicago; Washington, D.C.; and across Massachusetts, more than half of those arrested had no criminal record, compared with a third of immigrants arrested nationwide.

The Trump administration has said that the aggressive operations are necessary because so-called sanctuary city policies have made it harder for ICE agents to go after immigrants who have committed crimes. It has deployed other federal forces, including Border Patrol and the National Guard, to expand its crackdown.

The operations have upended life for many residents and prompted protests and backlash. Local leaders say they have done little to make their cities safer.

Less than 30 percent of the people arrested in any of these operations had been convicted of a crime, an analysis of the data shows, and a very small share had been convicted of a violent crime. The most common non-violent convictions were for driving under the influence and other traffic offenses.

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The same trends seen in the local crackdowns were seen nationwide, as the share of people with criminal convictions ICE has detained fell to 28 percent in mid-October from 46 percent at the start of Mr. Trump’s term. Another 26 percent had pending charges.

The share of people arrested under Mr. Trump with past violent convictions for crimes like assault, robbery or homicide was down to 5 percent in mid-October, the data shows, compared with 15 percent in 2024.

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Under President Trump, ICE arrests of all types are up, including transfers from other law enforcement agencies, the data shows. But the greatest increase in arrests has occurred outside of these programs. In five states and Washington, D.C., a majority of the people detained by ICE this year had no criminal record.

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In Illinois, the data shows, just 54 people with violent convictions were arrested by ICE between the start of “Midway Blitz” and mid-October. Another 78 of those arrested had past convictions for a traffic offense, the most frequent type of past conviction.

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