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In fiscal year 2016, ICE said it removed or returned 240,255 individuals. More than 7 out of 10 were taken into custody while trying to illegally enter the United States, or shortly after. Of the remaining 65,332, officials said "the vast majority were convicted criminals."
But an analysis by NJ Advance Media of immigration data compiled by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse or TRAC, a non-partisan research group based at Syracuse University, shows that over the past five years, the majority of those deported have not been convicted of any crime.
In New Jersey, the TRAC data from 2011 through the first quarter of 2016 found that 56 percent of those deported had no criminal record. Of those convicted, the most serious offense was driving under the influence, which led to the removal of 291 people.
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