This story is part of “Trump Two: Six Months In,” our series taking stock of the administration’s efforts to reshape immigration enforcement and criminal justice.
Contractor Hector Madrid Reyes was driving to Home Depot in March when he was rear-ended. As he and the other driver exchanged information, a Georgia State Patrol officer pulled up and asked for their licenses. Madrid, who arrived in the U.S. from Honduras as a teenager and was awaiting a court hearing for his asylum claim, didn’t have one.
“There’s no public transportation where we’re at, no Uber or Lyft,” said his wife, Jacqueline Maravilla, about his choice to drive. “Everything’s 45 minutes from everything. It’s a calculated risk we have to take to support our family.”
That risk has grown even greater for thousands of immigrant families under the Trump administration, as officials expand efforts to deport people with little or no criminal history. The monthly number of people deported whose most serious conviction was a traffic violation — such as driving without a license — has more than tripled in the last six months, hitting almost 600 in May, according to new estimates by The Marshall Project. In total, over 1,800 people with traffic violations have been deported this year.
People with no criminal convictions at all make up two-thirds of the more than 120,000 people deported between January and May. For another 8%, the only offense on their record was illegal entry to the U.S. Only about 12% were convicted of a crime that was either violent or potentially violent. The numbers contradict officials’ continued claims that immigration enforcement is focusing on the “worst of the worst” criminal offenders.
The numbers are estimates from a Marshall Project analysis of Immigration and Customs Enforcement data, provided to the Deportation Data Project in response to a FOIA request. The group noted the dataset may be incomplete and could undercount the true numbers of deportations.
ICE officials did not respond to a request for comment.
For many facing removal, the crimes on their records are years old. So far this year more than 600 people have been deported whose most serious convictions were marijuana-related offenses, and in three out of four cases, the offense occurred at least five years ago.
“It’s not at all about convictions anymore,” said Tim Warden-Hertz, a directing attorney of the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, a Washington-based legal organization. “There is no discretion. It’s just trying to get as many people as they can, any way that they can.”
Historical data from the Deportation Data Project shows that previous administrations also deported people with no convictions or only minor offenses, but the numbers have increased under Trump. From President Biden’s inauguration through the end of fiscal year 2023, the last day with available data, over half of the people deported had no criminal conviction. During that period, an average of 80 people a month were deported with only traffic offenses, compared with an average of over 350 per month so far under Trump’s second term.
Some of Trump’s advisors have said publicly that the administration’s goal is for 3,000 ICE arrests each day. But in recent court filings, immigration officials have denied having a quota.
Some attorneys worry this pressure to deport more people is leading to an increase in racial profiling, and that more drivers of color are being pulled over for minor traffic violations as a way to check their legal status. Twenty states have recently passed laws that increase local police’s involvement in immigration enforcement. And a growing number of police departments are signing agreements with the Department of Homeland Security to enforce federal immigration laws during encounters like routine traffic stops.
“We hear people pulled over for minor reasons, like a broken blinker, crossing the yellow line, or the tint is too dark on windows,” said Paul R. Chavez, director of litigation and advocacy for Americans for Immigrant Justice, a Miami-based nonprofit. “People are arrested for those very minor things, brought to jail, fingerprinted, and then handed over to ICE.”
Chavez noted that many people are being charged solely with driving without a license, a crime police generally discover only after making a traffic stop. “If you’re pulled over and that’s the only accusation, in my mind that’s pretty clear evidence of racial profiling,” he said.
The number of people deported with only nonviolent offenses — like trespassing, failure to appear in court, marijuana offenses, shoplifting and traffic violations — has almost doubled since January.
After Madrid’s accident, he says he passed a breathalyzer test. But he admitted he had smoked weed the night before, 18 hours prior. The Georgia State Patrol officer arrested him on charges of driving without a license and driving under the influence.
Madrid’s only existing conviction was for driving without a license in 2019, he said. Back then, “He got arrested, I bailed him out, he had a court date, he paid the fine,” Maravilla said. “And that was the end of it.”
Things went differently this time. After Maravilla paid Madrid’s bond, ICE officers picked him up and ultimately took him to Stewart Detention Center, south of Columbus, Georgia. A judge denied his release from detention, citing the DUI charge for marijuana use the night before the accident. But the hearing in his criminal case wouldn’t happen until the following summer. Madrid had to decide between spending at least a year stuck inside a remote, overcrowded detention center — or leaving his wife and family behind.
In early July, Madrid opted to self-deport to Honduras. Maravilla, a U.S. citizen who has never been on a plane and doesn’t have a passport, is working to save enough money to visit him and bring him some of his belongings. The two were married just three weeks before his arrest.
“It’s a deep pain,” Madrid told The Marshall Project in Spanish. “I am not there with my wife, cannot see my mother and give her a hug, or help them with what I earn from my work. Listening to my wife cry on the phone has been something I do not wish for anyone.”
