The Department of Public Safety and local law enforcement agencies in Texas participate in the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Priority Enforcement Program (PEP). Participation in PEP enables DHS to work with state and local law enforcement to take custody of individuals who pose a danger to public safety before those individuals are released into our communities. In Texas, PEP begins at the local level when an individual is arrested and booked by a Texas law enforcement officer for a criminal violation of Texas law. The arrested individual’s fingerprints are submitted to the Texas DPS and subsequently to the FBI for criminal history and warrant checks. This same biometric data is also sent to DHS’ IDENT database so that ICE can determine the person’s immigration status and whether the individual is a priority for removal, consistent with the DHS enforcement priorities. The immigration status information is returned to DPS by DHS. The following report is based upon the status indicators provided to the DPS. For the purposes of this report, the term “criminal alien” refers to an individual who has been identified as an alien by DHS and who has been arrested for a state criminal offense, typically a Misdemeanor B or higher, committed in Texas.
Lawful Presence Determined Through PEP
According to DHS status indicators, over 356,000 criminal aliens have been booked into local Texas jails between June 1, 2011 and November 30, 2021, of which over 243,000 were classified as illegal aliens by DHS.
Between June 1, 2011 and November 30, 2021, these 243,000 illegal aliens were charged with more than 401,000 criminal offenses which included arrests for 743 homicide charges; 47,737 assault charges; 7,524 burglary charges; 49,446 drug charges; 729 kidnapping charges; 19,769 theft charges; 31,474 obstructing police charges; 2,204 robbery charges; 5,010 sexual assault charges; 6,111 sexual offense charges; and 4,387 weapon charges. DPS criminal history records reflect those criminal charges have thus far resulted in over 152,000 convictions including 335 homicide convictions; 18,350 assault convictions; 3,930 burglary convictions; 21,875 drug convictions; 246 kidnapping convictions; 8,329 theft convictions; 13,583 obstructing police convictions; 1,334 robbery convictions; 2,391 sexual assault convictions; 2,910 sexual offense convictions; and 1,627 weapon convictions.
These figures only count individuals who previously had an encounter with DHS that resulted in their fingerprints being entered into the DHS IDENT database. Foreign nationals who enter the country illegally and avoid detection by DHS, but are later arrested by local or state law enforcement for a state offense will not have a DHS response in regard to their lawful status and do not appear in these counts. However, in addition to the PEP program, DHS actively adjudicates the immigration status of individuals incarcerated in the Texas prison system. From 2011 to date, the Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) has provided DPS with information on more than 29,000 individuals who were identified by DHS as in the country illegally while they were incarcerated at TDCJ. 10,545 of these individuals were not identified through the PEP program at the time of their arrest. DPS does not know the current incarceration status of the individuals identified while they were incarcerated nor when their alien status was initially determined.
Lawful Presence Determined While Incarcerated at TDCJ
Between June 1, 2011 and November 30, 2021, these 10,545 individual identified as illegal aliens while in prison, but who were not previously identified through PEP, were charged with more than 8,000 criminal offenses which included arrests for 109 homicide charges; 1072 assault charges; 537 burglary charges; 1,539 drug charges; 46 kidnapping charges; 408 theft charges; 783 obstructing police charges; 324 robbery charges; 693 sexual assault charges; 303 sexual offense charges; and 188 weapon charges. DPS criminal history records reflect those criminal charges have thus far resulted in over 4,000 convictions including 83 homicide convictions; 651 assault convictions; 360 burglary convictions; 896 drug convictions; 27 kidnapping convictions; 227 theft convictions; 357 obstructing police convictions; 247 robbery convictions; 496 sexual assault convictions; 221 sexual offense convictions; and 84 weapon convictions.
Because DPS does not know the date these individuals were identified as illegal while in prison, the count of charges for which this population was arrested between June 1, 2011 and November 30, 2021 does not necessarily align with the size of the population of illegal aliens 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 (see the Historical Data section of this report). However, for this report, in order to be consistent with the timeframe utilized to provide counts of arrest and conviction for the population identified through PEP, we have limited the arrest and conviction counts for prison identified illegal aliens to the same June 1, 2011 to November 30, 2021 time frame used for individuals identified through PEP.
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