This Christmas, These Worst of Worst Murderers, Pedophiles, and Violent Assailant Criminal Illegal Aliens Are Off American Streets

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is a federal law‑enforcement agency within the Department of Homeland Security. It has two main enforcement arms:

• Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), which identifies, arrests, detains, and removes noncitizens (“aliens” in law) who are removable under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).
• Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), which investigates federal crimes involving immigration, customs, and border‑related offenses.

ICE’s legal authority to arrest and remove noncitizens comes mainly from federal immigration statutes:

• INA §236 (8 U.S.C. §1226) authorizes immigration officials to arrest and detain noncitizens pending a decision on whether they should be removed.
• INA §287 (8 U.S.C. §1357) authorizes immigration officers to interrogate, arrest, and search noncitizens (and, in limited situations, others) when they have reason to believe the person is in the U.S. in violation of immigration law, generally using an administrative arrest warrant.

Using this authority, ICE can make civil (administrative) immigration arrests, hold people in immigration detention, and carry out removal (deportation) after an immigration judge or other lawful process issues a removal order.

“Criminal illegal alien” is not a precise legal category in the Immigration and Nationality Act; it is a political and public‑relations label used in this DHS release.

In immigration law:

• “Alien” is the legal term for a person who is not a U.S. citizen or national.
• Noncitizens can become “inadmissible” or “removable” if they are convicted of certain crimes (for example, “crimes involving moral turpitude” or “aggravated felonies”). In practice, such people are often called “criminal aliens” in government reports and case law.
• “Illegal” is not a defined immigration status; it is a common shorthand for being in the U.S. without lawful status or in violation of status (unlawful presence).

So in plain language, DHS is using “criminal illegal alien” to describe noncitizens who (1) lack lawful status or are otherwise removable and (2) have criminal convictions that trigger immigration consequences. The underlying legal classifications, however, are “removable/inadmissible alien” based on specific criminal grounds, not the phrase “criminal illegal alien.”

After an ICE arrest like the ones described, the default process is civil immigration enforcement, not new criminal prosecution:

1. Administrative arrest and processing – ICE typically arrests the person on an administrative immigration warrant alleging removability, fingerprints them, and serves a Notice to Appear (NTA). The NTA is the charging document that starts removal (deportation) proceedings in immigration court.
2. Detention and bond – ICE decides whether to detain or release the person. Many people with serious criminal convictions fall into “mandatory detention” and cannot be released on bond while proceedings are pending.
3. Removal proceedings – The case goes before an immigration judge (civil court). The government must prove the person is removable; the noncitizen can seek any relief they qualify for (asylum, cancellation of removal, etc.). If no relief is granted, the judge issues a removal order and ICE carries it out.
4. Criminal charges are separate – If DOJ wants to bring new federal criminal charges (for example, illegal reentry after removal, 8 U.S.C. §1326), that would be a separate criminal case in federal court. DHS’s “Worst of the Worst” materials, including this press release, describe people with prior criminal convictions; they do not indicate that ICE is now charging them with new crimes, only that they are being arrested for immigration removal.

In these DHS/ICE materials, the agency summarizes convictions but does not publish the underlying court records:

• The Christmas press release simply lists each person, their nationality, and the crimes “convicted” of, along with where they were convicted (e.g., “in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,” “in Boston, Massachusetts,” “in Harris County, Texas,” “in San Juan, Puerto Rico,” “in Pitt County, North Carolina”).
• The ICE “Worst of the Worst” page likewise provides short narratives: offense(s) of conviction, the U.S. jurisdiction (often identifying the specific state or federal court), and sentence length. It does not include full indictments, judgments, or dockets.

Those convictions, as described, were obtained in U.S. jurisdictions (state or territorial courts and, in some ICE examples, U.S. district courts). DHS does not, in this press release, cite foreign convictions; it relies on convictions from U.S. criminal courts and then uses certified records of conviction as evidence in immigration proceedings, while the full documentation remains in the relevant court systems rather than on the ICE/DHS website.

“Worst of the Worst” is a communications/branding label, not a separate legal status or statutory program.

• DHS announced a “Worst of the Worst” webpage (wow.dhs.gov) that aggregates information on “criminal illegal aliens” arrested by DHS since the start of the Trump administration and highlights “worst of the worst” arrests.
• ICE’s own “Worst of the Worst” page is a running gallery of “latest high‑profile and worst of the worst arrests,” showing individual cases and short conviction summaries.
• ICE and DHS press releases for particular operations (for example, Operation Metro Surge) also use “worst of the worst” descriptively for priority targets.

All of these cases are still handled through the normal ICE enforcement structure (ERO, HSI) and existing INA authorities; “Worst of the Worst” does not create separate legal powers or a distinct category in immigration law.

According to DHS, wow.dhs.gov is the public “Worst of the Worst” portal. The public can expect it to provide:

• A searchable database of noncitizens characterized by DHS as “criminal illegal aliens” who have been arrested and, in many cases, removed during DHS/ICE operations since the start of the Trump administration.
• For each listed individual: name, nationality, brief description of the offense(s) of conviction or charge, the U.S. jurisdiction where the crime occurred, and the community they were removed from; many entries also include a photo.
• Coverage of tens of thousands of arrests over time; DHS said the page would launch with about 10,000 arrests and be updated.

Access is by going to a standard web browser and visiting wow.dhs.gov, which redirects to the “Worst of the Worst” section on the official DHS/ICE websites. No login or special credentials are required; it is designed as a public‑facing transparency and messaging tool about ICE enforcement operations.