DHS/ICE use “criminal illegal alien” informally to mean a noncitizen who is present without legal authorization (an “illegal” or removable alien) and who has been charged with or convicted of criminal offenses; legally, statutes use terms like “criminal alien” or “undocumented criminal alien” (8 U.S.C. §1231) — defined there as an alien convicted of a felony or two or more misdemeanors who entered without inspection or was previously in exclusion/deportation proceedings. DHS/ICE guidance (e.g., the Criminal Alien Program) applies the term to identify and remove noncitizens with criminal records.
ICE (Enforcement and Removal Operations, ERO) has authority to identify, arrest and take into custody noncitizens who are removable under the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C.), to place immigration detainers, initiate removal (deportation) proceedings, detain pending removal, and refer criminal conduct to U.S. Attorneys; ICE’s Criminal Alien Program and other ERO tools coordinate with state/local jails and federal courts to assume custody after criminal sentences are complete.
DHS’s press release does not cite a source or timeframe for the “70%” claim. ICE/ERO publish arrest and enforcement data via ERO statistics dashboards and annual reports; to substantiate the figure you must consult ICE’s ERO statistics dashboard or DHS/ICE annual data releases (the press release itself does not provide the underlying timeframe or dataset).
WOW.DHS.Gov (Worst of the Worst) is DHS’s public webpage that highlights cases DHS/ICE describe as dangerous “criminal illegal aliens”; it publishes named arrest summaries, photos, charges/convictions, and links to local press releases and ICE cases to publicize removals and enforcement actions.
After ICE arrests, two separate systems proceed: criminal prosecution (if applicable) follows state or federal criminal justice processes; immigration enforcement proceeds through DHS/EOIR removal (immigration) proceedings — ICE may detain the individual, place detainers, and initiate removal; outcomes can include continued criminal incarceration, transfer to ICE custody after sentence, immigration detention, immigration hearings and, if ordered, deportation.
Tricia McLaughlin is Assistant Secretary for Border, Immigration, and Trade Policy at DHS (the press release quotes her in that role); DHS leadership pages and the release identify her as an Assistant Secretary involved in immigration enforcement messaging.
The individuals named are described in the release as convicted of criminal offenses; ICE arrests them under immigration authority (removability) and/or after criminal convictions — in practice ICE often takes custody of noncitizens who have criminal convictions to start removal proceedings, so both criminal convictions and immigration violations commonly apply and the criminal case can precede ICE custody and removal processes.