On Monday’s CBS Mornings and in an article at CBSNews.com, immigration reporter Camilo Montoya-Galvez continued his penchant for putting illegal immigrants first by scoffing at President Trump’s deportation efforts, claiming “[f]ewer than 14 percent of” those arrested by Homeland Security have violent criminal convictions or charges on their record. Even editor-in-chief Bari Weiss touted this story to question whether President has been focused on the “worst of the worst,” leading to multiple points of entry for X users to lambast CBS News and sister site The Free Press. Before going any further, the following are the only crimes CBS chose to track, given the rather strict definition by the FBI for what constitutes a violent crime: “[M]urder, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault offenses.” Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin blasted them for having led us to wonder whether they believe crimes like distribution of child pornography, and DUI are serious enough for deportation and if they’re comfortable with such offenders remaining in the U.S.: Drug trafficking, Distribution of child pornography, burglary, fraud, DUI, embezzlement, solicitation of a minor, human smuggling are all categorized as “non violent crimes.” Like we said, ~70% of those illegal aliens arrested under @POTUS Trump and @Sec_Noem have pending… https://t.co/4AUzxGMEhP — Tricia McLaughlin (@TriciaOhio) February 9, 2026 In a second X post, McLaughlin explained Montoya-Galvez and CBS also omitted the reality that some the Trump administration have arrested carry serious criminal records in other countries: By @cbs’s standard, Edward Hernandez, who @ICEgov arrested last week in Virginia is a “non criminal” because he hasn’t been convicted in the United States. Never mind that he is an MS-13 member & confessed to murdering 5 people in El Salvador through shooting, torturing,… pic.twitter.com/lY3VYOQGdu — Tricia McLaughlin (@TriciaOhio) February 9, 2026 “A CBS News exclusive on President Trump’s immigration crackdown. Coming up, we have a reality check on the President’s claim that those who were arrested are the ‘worst of the worst,’” featured co-host Vladimir Duthiers bragged in a tease. After a break, he continued to pull on this supposedly dishonest thread: “[T]he President says agents are going after the ‘worst of the worst,’ but a new government document obtained exclusively by CBS News reveals who exactly ICE is going after, and it’s not what we’ve been told.” WATCH: Reminder that CBS News is not conservative and still absurdly liberal -- they still oppose taking violent criminals off the streets Monday's 'CBS Mornings' downplays and dismisses the Trump administration's deportation efforts, scoffing at the notion that violent… pic.twitter.com/C183UvIDKp — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) February 9, 2026 Montoya-Galvez explained that even though the Trump administration has said “they’re mainly looking to deport dangerous and violent criminals...an internal Department of Homeland Security document shows that a vast majority of the people arrested....have not been charged with or convicted of a violent crime.” He shamelessly downplayed these arrests of violent crimes as minuscule (and thus implicitly minimized the notion of taking these individuals off the streets): Here are the numbers. Fewer than 14 percent of the nearly 400,000 undocumented immigrants arrested by ICE over the past year had charges or convictions for violent crimes. That includes crimes like kidnapping, sexual assault, and homicide, and fewer than two percent were actually accused of being gang members. Nearly 40 percent of the people taken into custody by ICE under the second Trump administration did not have any — any criminal record at all, and were detained solely for living in the country illegally or overstaying a visa, which are civil violations of immigration law.  He concluded his initial remarks by extrapolating this data to mean “roughly 60 percent did some kind of criminal charge or conviction, but again the vast majority were not for violent offenses.” CBS Saturday Morning co-host Adriana Diaz gushed: “Camilio, your reporting on this is always so good. You have so many good scoops and new information like this one. So, what’s going on here because what’s happening on the ground, based on these numbers, is not the messaging from the White House?” Montoya-Galvez shamelessly dragged out the tiresome defense of illegal immigration as a seemingly innocent crime because overstaying a visa or entering the country illegally is just “a civil offense” (click “expand”): President Trump’s promises of mass deportation arguably helped his return to power, but the numbers shared statistically speaking cannot carry out the largest deportation in operation in American history by just targeting criminals and that’s because the reality on the ground is that the vast majority of the millions of people here living illegally in violation of the law are not criminals, let alone serious offenders. Living in the country illegally, again, is typically treated as a civil offense of federal immigration law, and the millions of people who are here undocumented include very sympathetic individuals, including people who have been here for years, if not, decades. People who have American-born children, and now asylum seekers who are being arrested when they’re showing up to their court hearings, complying with the legal process. That is a question — a difficult question that our policy and lawmakers have to confront. Co-host and Democrat donor Gayle King also went down a predictable road of painting many illegal immigrants as a close friend who works at a grocery store: One of the most poignant things I’ve ever seen was a woman was saying, we want him to get the hardened criminals, but I didn’t know he meant Carol who’s been working in the grocery store for 25 years, who’s been a law-abiding citizen, who has had her children here. I think people are very shocked when you get behind the numbers to see who’s really being taken into custody and how they’re being taken into custody. Apparently, CBS decided to go harder in the paint for illegal aliens than U.S. citizens murdered by illegal aliens. Along with McLaughlin, the official White House rapid response X account sounded off as well: Fake News. Here's a few crimes categorized as "non-violent": Drug trafficking, human smuggling, child porn, fraud, DUI, burglary, etc. The article even admits 60% "had criminal charges or convictions (though it's actually ~70%). They're CRIMINALS and they're NOT welcome here. https://t.co/COngSVANsL — Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) February 9, 2026 The CBS News X post of Montoya-Galvez’s report was promptly raked over the coals by those outside the administration. Fox’s Bill Melugin pointed out the illegal aliens who murdered (and sexually assaulted) Rachel Morin, Jocelyn Nungaray, and Laken Riley would have been considered innocent souls in the eyes of CBS News: None of Laken Riley, Jocelyn Nungaray, & Rachel Morin’s illegal alien killers had any “violent” criminal history beforehand. https://t.co/IJF0tYfUSo — Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) February 9, 2026 NewsNation’s Bata Ungar-Sargon was blunt: “Apparently according to CBS it’s immoral to deport identity thieves, fraudsters, drunk drivers, smugglers, and human traffickers because these crimes can be committed non-violently. Needless to say, most Americans want these people deported, as they do every illegal alien. Conservative college professor Wilfred Reilly also blasted this lie peddled by Weiss and her network: I want to deport most or all illegal aliens, because they are not legally in the country, and we are a welfare state. Focus on criminals first, sure - but 60% of those being deported ARE criminals. Burglary, fatal DUI, and child porn are all non violent crimes. What about… https://t.co/3KMU3f3PdL — Wilfred Reilly (@wil_da_beast630) February 9, 2026 The same data set shows that 60% were charged with or convicted of (US) crimes, total, and ~100% were non-falsely-charged illegals. https://t.co/gK5Z5n8eWZ — Wilfred Reilly (@wil_da_beast630) February 9, 2026 Reilly also noticed a glaring gap CBS apparently thinks shouldn’t be grounds for deportation: “A very easy way to handle this point, in debates, is just asking: “Is child pornography considered a violent crime?’ Covenant Law’s Ian Speir did some math on a chart within CBS’s story and found things did not really add up: How did you guys count to 14%? When I add up the highlighted categories — which are all seriously dangerous or violent — I get 30.1%. pic.twitter.com/FBAJDdWTEj — Ian Speir (@IanSpeir) February 9, 2026 A few others landed solid blows: Has Bari gone all Bunny on us? If 60.2% are accused or convicted of a crime, that's more focused than I'd expected. Everyone knows there's a policy fight in DHS over how much to focus on criminals. If you are here illegally you are subject to deportation--criminal or not. That's… https://t.co/S8SS1cXElD — Mickey Kaus (@kausmickey) February 9, 2026 This is intentional obfuscation. The reality is, over 65% of illegals have pending charges or prior convictions. Among those considered "non-violent" by CBS: Child Porn DUI Drug & Human Trafficking@camiloreports, of course, waited until below the fold to mention these. https://t.co/XZcuFSLgk6 — Dan Hollaway (@DanHollaway) February 9, 2026 We don’t know how many crimes illegals commit. 1) Sanctuary cities, counties, & states don’t collect immigration status of perps. 2) Not all victims report crimes, from rape to property crimes esp. 3) Not all data gets reported to the Feds. This whole debate is flawed. ⬇️ https://t.co/xyh6JT8mBz — BDW (@BryanDeanWright) February 9, 2026 Why do we have to wait for them to hurt or kill someone before we remove them? Do we have borders and laws, or don’t we? https://t.co/nRy1Z402vV — Elizabeth Barcohana (@E_Barcohana) February 9, 2026 To see the relevant CBS transcript from February 9, click here.