The latest removal-by-removal files received by TRAC recorded fewer individuals had criminal convictions who were deported under Secure Communities. The last six months of data in this app (November 2018 - April 2019) reflect these new reports. As a result, time series plots show an abrupt increase in the number of individuals without convictions for these last six months.

The abruptness of this change was troubling. TRAC carried out a comparison of the conviction records for overlapping time periods in the most recent two shipments from ICE. The overall number of removals reported for the same months in the two shipments were similar. However, a significant number of offenses showed fewer recorded convictions in the most recent shipment. But there was no clear pattern that pointed to a likely reason for these changes. It is possible that ICE had updated and corrected its criminal history records between the release of the last two sets of Secure Communities data and that this accounted for the changes seen. However, until ICE clarifies the reason(s) for these changes, caution is warranted before drawing substantive conclusions on criminal conviction trends.