The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) acknowledged that the website it created to showcase the so-called "worst of the worst" detained immigrants is riddled with errors.
An investigation by CNN found that thousands of individuals were listed as convicted or arrested for serious crimes - including sexual offenses or various forms of homicide - while many others, also labeled as the “worst of the worst,” were actually recorded for much less severe violations: isolated traffic fines, possession of marijuana, or illegal re-entry into the United States following a prior deportation.
The site was launched in December and heavily promoted by DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, the White House, and President Donald Trump himself as a public showcase of their immigration policy.
The page currently lists about 25,000 people along with the crimes for which, according to the agency, they were arrested or convicted.
However, following the aforementioned journalistic review, a spokesperson for DHS acknowledged that the charges against hundreds of immigrants listed on the website were described incorrectly.
He attributed the inaccuracies to a "technical malfunction" that -he said- affected approximately 5% of the entries and assured that the problem had already been "resolved."
In response to criticisms regarding whether equating traffic violators with murderers could undermine the agency's public message, the DHS defended its listing.
"Many of those listed with traffic violations and illegal re-entry, which is a serious crime, have additional offenses,” stated the spokesperson, who reiterated that it was all due to a technical error on the site.
"All these individuals have been arrested by ICE, and they all committed offenses by violating the laws of our nation, including some who had serious charges for illegal reentry," he added.
CNN stated that it was unable to independently verify the individual descriptions of each of the thousands of names included in the portal.
Who is on the list?
Almost half of the immigrants labeled as the "worst of the worst" are from Mexico.
More than 2,100 are from Honduras; Guatemala and Cuba have about 1,900 each; nearly 1,200 are from El Salvador.
Iran, China, Nicaragua, Haiti, and Jamaica each contribute dozens, and there are also several dozen from Somalia, a country that Trump has disparaged repeatedly and which has been the focus of the recent offensive in Minneapolis, where there is a large Somali diaspora.
Some relatives have written to CiberCuba in recent weeks to point out that their loved ones were wrongly identified as convicted of serious crimes they did not commit.
A pattern of inaccurate descriptions
This is not the first time the Trump administration has acknowledged mistakes in the public portrayal of detained immigrants.
In a case previously reported by NOTUS, the White House acknowledged that it published the image of a man whom it incorrectly described as convicted of a sexual offense against a minor.
According to an official, the error has been corrected and the administration will continue to disseminate information about "the dangerous illegal criminal foreigners who are being removed from our streets."
Arrests attributed in cities with large prisons
The DHS portal not only displays names and offenses but also includes the countries of origin and the cities where the immigrants were arrested.
The analysis by CNN revealed that some of the places with the highest number of arrests are small cities with large federal or private prison facilities.
The city with the most arrests on the list is Conroe, Texas, where the Joe Corley Processing Center, a detention center used by ICE, is located.
Other locations with high numbers—such as Lompoc (California), Yazoo City (Mississippi), and Eden (Texas)—also host large federal prisons.
This could indicate that some of those detained were already in custody, which would undermine the narrative that they were "threats to public safety" "lurking" in communities, as noted by the mentioned media outlet.
The drive to publicly display names and faces has been directly encouraged by the president. "Show the numbers, the names, and the faces of the violent criminals, and show them NOW!" Trump wrote on Truth Social last month.
“People will start supporting the patriots of ICE, instead of the highly paid rioters, anarchists, and agitators! MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN,” he added.
However, critics argue that the proportion of immigrants truly convicted of violent crimes directly related to public safety is lower than what the official narrative suggests.
"The vast majority of so-called criminal foreigners are individuals accused or convicted of traffic violations, driving under the influence of alcohol, and immigration-related offenses," stated John Sandweg, former acting director of ICE during the Barack Obama administration.
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