Story highlights John Kelly said non-criminal offenders arrested by ICE were "not the valedictorians"

Trump administration policy allows for ICE to arrest any immigration law violator

Washington (CNN) Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly defended the uptick in immigration arrests by his agents with colorful language in an interview with FOX News Friday morning.

"Seventy-five percent of the people that the great men and women of ICE have taken into custody, 75% are criminals. The other 25% are not innocent; they are multiple deportees, they are people who have been fleeing from the law, they are fugitives. But they are not necessarily convicted criminals," Kelly said. "Seventy-five percent are indeed criminals. The other 25% are not the valedictorians of their high school class."

Kelly's phrasing aside, his figures square with the latest numbers out from Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In the first 100 days of the Trump administration: 41,318 immigrants were arrested. Of that total, 30,473 had criminal convictions, ranging from homicide and assault to sexual abuse and drug-related charges. That amounts to roughly percent 74%.

The other quarter of the total, numbering 10,845, have no criminal convictions and could have been arrested, as Kelly said, for reasons including multiple illegal reentries into the country and refusing to check in with ICE officials.

They also could have been arrested for baseline immigration law violations: crossing the border illegally or overstaying a visa.

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