ICE does not publish a formal legal definition for “worst of the worst.” In practice, DHS and ICE use the label in communications for non‑citizens who have been arrested by ICE and who have serious or multiple criminal convictions—especially violent offenses, sex crimes (including crimes against children), homicide, major assaults, and serious drug‑trafficking—claiming these cases pose the highest public‑safety risk. The WOW.DHS.GOV site and related ICE “Worst of the Worst” page show this is a messaging category, not a statutory one, and the exact cutoff for who is included is decided by the agencies, not defined in law or regulation.
After an ICE arrest, the typical civil immigration process is: • ICE custody & charging: ICE can hold a person and serve a “Notice to Appear” (NTA), which starts removal (deportation) proceedings in immigration court (run by DOJ’s Executive Office for Immigration Review, EOIR), or it can transfer the person to the criminal system if there are pending federal or state charges. • Detention & bond: Some people are subject to mandatory detention because of certain criminal convictions; others may request bond or release from ICE or an immigration judge while their case is pending. Detention during proceedings can last weeks to many months, depending on court backlogs and appeals. • Immigration court: An immigration judge decides whether the person is removable and whether they qualify for any relief (such as asylum, cancellation of removal, etc.), after one or more hearings. • Final removal order & 90‑day “removal period”: Once a final order of removal is entered and appeals are over, a 90‑day statutory “removal period” begins during which ICE is expected to carry out deportation and can detain the person (8 U.S.C. § 1231). Case law generally treats about six months of post‑order detention as presumptively reasonable; after that, if removal is not realistically foreseeable, prolonged detention can be challenged in court. If the person is also being prosecuted for a crime, they usually serve any criminal sentence first, then are transferred to ICE custody for the immigration process.
There is no single national database for all criminal convictions, but most can be verified through official court records: • State and local convictions (for example, “indecency with a child” in Guadalupe County, Texas, or “criminal sexual act” in Riverhead, New York) are usually searchable through the relevant state or county court or judiciary website, or by requesting records from the clerk of court in that county. • Federal convictions (such as federal drug‑conspiracy cases) can be searched through PACER, the U.S. federal courts’ online system, or by visiting the clerk’s office for the appropriate U.S. District Court. To verify a specific case, the public generally needs the person’s full name and the jurisdiction (state/county or federal district); some older, sealed, or juvenile records may not be accessible.
WOW.DHS.GOV is DHS’s “Worst of the Worst” portal. According to DHS, it is a searchable webpage that aggregates information on non‑citizens arrested by DHS/ICE since the start of the Trump administration whom the department labels as serious “criminal illegal aliens.” The site lets users filter by state and country of origin and, for each listed person, typically shows the name, country of origin, crime(s) of conviction or arrest (for example, child‑sex offenses, assaults, drug trafficking), and the location where ICE arrested or removed them. DHS describes it as a transparency tool highlighting arrests and removals in support of its “Worst of the Worst” enforcement campaign.
In this press release, DHS says ICE entered 2026 “with the hiring of more than 12,000 officers” and calls this a “historic 120% increase in manpower,” but it does not specify the baseline staffing level or the exact time period over which that increase is measured. Public ICE and DHS materials accessed with this release do not provide a detailed breakdown linking the 120% figure to a particular year or workforce total, so the precise baseline and period for that statistic cannot be independently confirmed from available documentation.
DHS is the cabinet‑level department responsible for overall U.S. immigration enforcement policy and oversight; it sets priorities, issues regulations and guidance, and oversees agencies like ICE, CBP (Customs and Border Protection), and USCIS (Citizenship and Immigration Services). ICE is one component agency within DHS whose specific roles include enforcing immigration laws inside the United States (identifying, arresting, detaining, and removing people who are deportable), and investigating cross‑border crimes such as human smuggling, drug trafficking, and certain financial crimes through its Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) divisions.
These are state‑law sex offenses, and their exact legal meaning depends on the state: • Texas “indecency with a child” (Texas Penal Code § 21.11): In Texas, a person commits this offense if, with a child under 17, they either (1) engage in “sexual contact” with the child (touching certain intimate parts with intent to arouse or gratify sexual desire), or (2) expose their own or cause the child to expose certain body parts with that sexual intent. Subsection (a)(1) (contact) is generally a second‑degree felony; subsection (a)(2) (exposure) is a third‑degree felony. • New York “criminal sexual act” (Penal Law Article 130, e.g., §130.40, §130.45, §130.50): In New York, “criminal sexual act” refers to non‑consensual or unlawful oral or anal sexual conduct, with degrees based mainly on the victim’s age, the use of force, or the victim’s inability to consent. For example, third‑degree criminal sexual act (§130.40) can involve oral or anal sexual conduct with someone who cannot legally consent due to age or other factors; first‑degree (§130.50) covers more serious circumstances such as forcible compulsion or very young victims. Other states have their own, differently named statutes for similar conduct, so definitions and penalties vary by jurisdiction.