Dr. John Lott has a brand new piece on the New York Put up.
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The media narrative in opposition to President Donald Trump’s effort to implement immigration legislation was on full show final week at a White Home press briefing.
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“Earlier you had been simply defending ICE brokers . . . that they had been doing every little thing accurately,” Niall Stanage of The Hill challenged Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.
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“Thirty-two folks died in ICE custody final 12 months; 170 US residents had been detained by ICE. And, uh, Renee Good was shot within the head and killed by an ICE agent. How does that equate to them doing every little thing accurately?”
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Numerous information tales have amplified fears that underneath Trump, federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement brokers are wildly violating fundamental rights.
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NPR, to quote only one instance, not too long ago claimed that “many” Americans “have been mistaken” for unlawful immigrants, and that there’s “an extended historical past of immigration companies not having monitor file.”
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However the numbers inform a really completely different story about how ICE is doing underneath Trump.
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Let’s set the baseline: Between the president’s Jan. 20, 2025 inauguration and the tip of November, Trump’s administration arrested a unprecedented complete of 595,000 unlawful aliens and deported 605,000.
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The 170 ICE-detained US residents cited in Stanage’s diatribe included about 130 arrested for interfering with or assaulting officers, in response to the left-leaning ProPublica — justifiable underneath any studying of the legislation.
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Solely about 40 or so of those that had been detained claimed to be US residents by chance or erroneously arrested by ICE.
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However simply half of these folks had been held for greater than a day; most had been launched in just a few hours.
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Any error is severe, however 40 errors out of 595,000 arrests quantities to an error fee of simply 0.0067% — roughly one wrongful detention for each 14,925 arrests.
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Evaluate that with the ultimate two years of President Barack Obama’s administration.
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In fiscal years 2015 and 2016, ICE recorded 263 mistaken arrests, 54 mistaken detentions (book-ins), and 4 mistaken removals.
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Throughout these two years, ICE made a mere 239,645 arrests, that means the 54 mistaken detentions alone produced an Obama error fee of 0.0225% —about one mistake for each 4,444 arrests.
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Total, the error fee underneath Obama was 3.36 instances larger than underneath Trump.
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Sadly, there is no such thing as a comparable information for the Carter or Biden administration or the remainder of the Obama administration.
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As additional proof of ICE’s irresponsibility, Stanage charged that “32 folks died in ICE custody final 12 months.”
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That declare, nonetheless, misleads with out context; the numbers solely make sense when put next throughout administrations.
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Throughout the course of Obama’s two phrases, from 2009 to 2017, 56 people died in ICE custody.
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That administration didn’t publish clear detention totals, however the closest accessible figures present about 498,646 detentions and deportations over 5 fiscal years, a mean of roughly 99,729 per 12 months.
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If that annual fee held all through the whole administration, ICE processed about 797,834 people.
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Underneath that estimate, 56 deaths interprets right into a fee of 0.007% — roughly one demise for each 14,314 detainees.
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By comparability, the speed final 12 months underneath Trump was barely decrease: 0.0054%, or one demise for each 18,594 detainees.
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Each these figures are considerably under the typical demise fee for the detainee age group.
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Stanage omits one key information level: the variety of People by chance deported.
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The rationale for him not doing so is simple — none occurred.
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That’s proper, for all of the tumult and fury, ICE underneath Trump made no misguided deportations by November.
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Against this, ICE underneath Obama deported two US residents in fiscal 12 months 2015, and two extra in fiscal 12 months 2016.
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All of the media lies and distortions carry disturbing real-world impacts.
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Amid the drumbeat of false protection, 57% of People now disapprove of how ICE enforces immigration legal guidelines, a Quinnipiac College survey discovered this month, with solely 40% saying they approve of ICE’s actions.
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One other current ballot, performed by CNN/SSRS, discovered that 51% of adults now say ICE enforcement is making cities much less secure.
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The critics’ demonization ways are making federal brokers’ jobs significantly extra harmful.
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Assaults on federal immigration officers elevated by 1,347% in 2025, as brokers skilled a terrifying 8,000% surge in demise threats.
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Automotive assaults on ICE brokers spiked by 3,200%, The Put up reported.
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And in simply the previous couple of days, hackers leaked the house addresses and private figuring out data of about 4,500 workers of ICE and the US Border Patrol — multiplying the dangers to their security.
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No federal company is ideal. In immigration enforcement, as in all legislation enforcement operations, errors might be made.
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However the media’s lack of perspective on the info, and its refusal to place the numbers in context, is placing a match to an explosive public debate.
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Accountable journalism ought to inform us, not distort actuality — or gas hostility towards these doing a tough and harmful job.
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John R. Lott, Jr., “How Trump’s ICE enforcement file blows Obama’s out of the water— by loads,” New York Put up, Jan. 22, 2026.
We did information searches and with ChatGPT and Grok on unlawful aliens who died in ICE custody, and I provide you with solely 4 instances, however two of these had been murdered by the anti-ICE activists the through the Sept. 24, 2025 sniper assault on the ICE Dallas Area Workplace and the third one is Geraldo Lunas Campos who died this 12 months after he was injured through the wrestle when he was arrested! There is just one actual case final 12 months: Josué Castro Rivera, a 25-year-old from Honduras, died on October 23, 2025, after being struck by a car whereas fleeing ICE brokers throughout an tried detention. Sadly, the ProPublica and legislation corporations that put collectively the info on ICE actions don’t present a breakdown of causes of deaths, which in itself is a warning signal. In spite of everything, in the event that they had been dangerous instances, you’d suppose they might make an enormous deal about them, proper?
.Notice additionally that the typical throughout these teams (masking ages 20-49) is roughly 2.0 per 1,000, so the demise fee for these within the ICE custody is far, a lot decrease! So even together with deaths just like the capturing on the ICE Dallas Area Workplace, the variety of deaths throughout Trump was 1 for each 18,594 detainees and for the final inhabitants of 20 to 49 12 months olds it will have been 37.2 per 18,594 folks — to place it in another way, the demise fee for the final inhabitants is 37.2 instances higher than for these in ICE custody!
