Crackdown on migrants snares those with no US criminal records

US President Donald Trump, who has vowed to target the "worst of the worst" in his mass deportation campaign, is overseeing a crackdown that is increasingly ensnaring foreigners without criminal records.

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WASHINGTON -

About 37 per cent of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrests in July were of people with no US criminal convictions or pending charges, according to federal data compiled by the University of California at Berkeley's Deportation Data Project and updated this week.

That was up from 13 per cent in December, the last full month of Mr Joe Biden's presidency.

"It's impossible both to have mass deportations and to concentrate deportations on the worst of the worst," said Professor David Hausman, faculty director of the Deportation Data Project.

Despite the rising share of arrests of people with no US criminal records, the data also shows that the Trump administration is arresting a lot more immigrants overall, including those with US criminal convictions or pending charges.