Source reporting: Dallas Express
Tarrant County booking records link 278 defendants with federal immigration holds to hundreds of criminal charge entries during the first seven months of 2026, according to an analysis by the Dallas Express.
The county booked the defendants between January 1 and August 3. A spreadsheet obtained by the publisher contained 497 non-ICE charge rows. Of those, 477 named an offense, three listed a first-degree felony code without identifying the offense and 17 contained administrative or other-offense descriptions. The Dallas Express counted 480 coded charge entries from the file.
That figure requires an important limitation. The export did not include case numbers and contained rows with repeated visible information, so the entries should not be treated as 480 independently verified cases. They are charge records supplied by the county. Criminal charges are allegations, and each defendant remains presumed innocent unless convicted.
The county marked 355 of the coded entries as first-, second- or third-degree felonies or state jail felonies. The listed allegations included 42 entries for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, 28 for assault causing bodily injury involving family violence and 26 for assault involving the obstruction of breathing or circulation. The records also contained multiple child sexual-offense entries, as well as aggravated kidnapping, aggravated robbery and 57 entries involving driving while intoxicated.
An ICE hold is a request that a local jail notify federal immigration authorities before a person's release and temporarily maintain custody for a transfer. A hold by itself does not establish a criminal conviction, a final removal order or a person's final immigration status. The spreadsheet did not include immigration-court records that would allow those issues to be independently resolved.
Tarrant County has participated in the federal 287(g) program since 2017. The sheriff's office describes its role as a jail-based partnership focused on people facing high-level misdemeanor or felony charges.
The records also relate to a county funding dispute. Commissioners voted 3-2 on February 10 to seek a $140,000 state grant supporting 287(g) expenses not reimbursed by the federal government. Commissioners Alisa Simmons and Roderick Miles Jr. opposed the application.
The data is significant to public integrity because it informs how officials describe the program, allocate local and state funds and measure public-safety outcomes. Clear distinctions among defendants, charge entries, cases, convictions and immigration determinations are essential for residents to evaluate those decisions accurately.