DHS/ICE use “criminal illegal alien” as an administrative/operational label for a non‑citizen who is removable because of criminal activity — typically someone charged with or convicted of state or federal crimes. ICE’s Criminal Alien Program (CAP) and DHS statements use the term to prioritize identification, arrest, detention and removal of non‑citizens who pose public‑safety risks; it is not a separate criminal‑law category defined by statute beyond existing grounds for removal. (In practice the label relies on criminal convictions or credible criminal charges in U.S. courts.)
The DHS press release labels each named person as “convicted.” It therefore presents the listed offenses as convictions (not merely allegations) but does not attach case numbers or court links. To verify and view underlying court records you must search the state/local courts for the county named in the release: Fullerton and Orange, CA — Orange County Superior Court case search; Heber, UT — Wasatch County / Utah State Courts case search; New York City assault — New York State/City criminal case portals (WebCrims/iCourts or NYC court system) or local county court (Manhattan/Bronx/Kings as appropriate); Clewiston, FL (Hendry County) — Hendry County Clerk/Florida court records. These official court websites and statewide portals are the proper sources for dockets, charges and conviction records.
WOW.DHS.Gov is the DHS “Worst of the Worst” webpage that aggregates and highlights criminal non‑citizens ICE says it has arrested since the start of the Trump Administration; DHS says it features selected cases and directs the public to the site for more examples. DHS/ICE have not published a public, detailed methodology on the news release page explaining selection criteria beyond the operational priority to target “the worst of the worst” (i.e., criminal non‑citizens prioritized under ICE’s Criminal Alien Program).
The press release describes arrests by “ICE” and by ICE components (Enforcement and Removal Operations/ERO is the DHS/ICE unit that executes interior arrests). DHS/ICE commonly conducts arrests alone and in partnership with federal, state or local law‑enforcement and prosecutors; the DHS release does not list specific partner agencies for the named arrests. Local county or municipal arrest/prosecution records or subsequent ICE local field‑office media advisories will normally identify partner law enforcement when applicable.
After ICE arrest, most non‑citizens face two separate processes: criminal prosecution (if local/state/federal authorities have pending criminal charges) and an immigration administrative process. Typical next steps: (1) criminal case — prosecution, conviction or acquittal in state/federal court; (2) immigration — ICE/ERO places the person in immigration custody, may initiate removal (deportation) proceedings before an Immigration Judge (EOIR), and may seek removal after a final order; convicted non‑citizens can be detained and expedited for removal on criminal grounds even after serving sentences. Deportation and custody decisions are administrative and separate from criminal sentences.
DHS’s “70% of all ICE arrests are of criminal illegal aliens” claim appears in DHS/ICE public releases about the WOW site and enforcement operations; DHS/ICE communications attribute that figure to ICE enforcement statistics (ERO). The specific timeframe or technical definition isn’t provided on the Jan. 28, 2026 release; ICE’s published ERO statistics and annual reports (and the CAP pages) provide the underlying enforcement counts and definitions used to compute criminal‑arrest shares.
“Secretary Noem” is the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security named in the release (the DHS Cabinet official overseeing the Department). The Secretary heads DHS and has policy, budgetary and operational oversight for DHS components (including ICE), sets department priorities, and directs senior leadership; operational day‑to‑day control of ICE’s enforcement activities is exercised by ICE leadership and DHS senior officials under the Secretary’s policy direction.