Trump Amplifies DHS Claim That Deportations Drove Crime to Lowest Level Since 1900

Trump shares a Fox News report crediting deportations of criminal illegal immigrants for a projected 126-year low in homicides, citing an 18% drop in a sample of large U.S. cities.

First Published: August 4, 2026, 6:51 AM ET

WASHINGTON D.C. — Donald J. Trump amplified a claim that his deportation push has driven violent crime to its lowest level in more than a century. Trump shared a Fox News report that credited the removal of criminal illegal immigrants as the reason for the decline.

Homicides in a sample of large U.S. cities fell 18% from the prior year, putting the country on pace for the lowest homicide level since 1900, according to a Council on Criminal Justice analysis cited by foxnews. Carjackings dropped 47%, motor vehicle thefts fell 20%, robberies declined 17% and residential burglaries slid 13%, the same analysis found.

“It is common sense. When you remove criminals from the country, crime rates fall,” Assistant DHS Secretary Lauren Bis told Fox News Digital according to foxnews.

The report matters because it ties a measurable public-safety outcome to the administration’s signature immigration enforcement policy, a linkage that shapes the debate over deportations heading into the fall. Supporters gain a data point that connects removals to safer streets, while critics who question the causal claim lose ground when homicide totals fall across major cities.

Here is the full post on truthsocial: “FIRST ON FOX: DHS points to “common sense” reason for collapsing crime: “No surprise”: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/dhs-points-common-sense-reason-collapsing-crime-no-surprise” on August 4, 2026 at 10:37 AM ET.

This is Trump’s sixth message released today, and the last post was zero minutes ago, and it is not part of a thread. On average, Trump produces 18 posts per day since his inauguration on January 20, 2025. The move fits a broader pattern in Trump’s recent messaging, with 10 of his 489 posts over the last 30 days classified as Crime posts.

The Department of Homeland Security detailed recent removals of foreign nationals convicted of homicide, drug trafficking, aggravated assault and carjacking, by mentioning the source (see foxnews). Among the deportees was Jared Adonay Cruz-Rivera, a Honduran national tied to the Tren de Aragua organization, who was removed on July 18 following a robbery conviction, according to foxnews. Olegario Ramirez, a Mexican national and Paisas gang member with a homicide conviction, was deported on July 27, and Bulmaro Rendon-Ramos, a Surenos gang member, was removed the same day.

The scale of the projected decline stands out against recent history. A homicide low not seen since 1900 would eclipse the safest years of the 1950s and early 2010s, when large cities last recorded steep, sustained drops in killings.

For the average U.S. reader, the numbers translate into practical stakes on the street and in the driveway. A 47% fall in carjackings and a 20% drop in vehicle thefts mean fewer stolen cars and lower insurance exposure in the cities tracked by the analysis, according to foxnews.

Crime rates have fallen sharply before, and the current dispute over the cause is not new. Homicides plunged through the 1990s in New York, Los Angeles and other large cities, a decline that economists, police officials and demographers still argue over today. This time the White House has attached the drop directly to deportations, a specific claim that invites the same debate over correlation and cause.

The next verifiable checkpoint will be the Council on Criminal Justice’s year-end update, which the group typically releases after the full calendar year closes. A firm date for that report has not been announced.

Crediting law enforcement crackdowns for falling crime has long shaped presidential politics, as happened before. President Bill Clinton signed the 1994 crime bill that funded 100,000 police officers, and violent crime fell for years afterward, though scholars disputed how much the law itself contributed. Presidents since have claimed similar credit when the numbers moved their way, and the pattern shows that a president who presides over a crime decline reaps the political benefit regardless of the underlying cause.