“Worst of the Worst” (WOW.dhs.gov) is a public, searchable DHS webpage that lists non‑U.S. citizens whom DHS says were arrested during immigration enforcement operations and removed from U.S. communities, highlighting their reported criminal histories (e.g., homicide, rape, assault). The page is part of DHS’s main website and presents itself as highlighting “criminal aliens arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)” under Secretary Kristi Noem’s leadership, but DHS has not publicly assigned it to a specific sub‑office beyond DHS/ICE as the operational source of the underlying arrest and removal data.
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Public DHS materials describe the WOW list in broad terms but do not spell out a detailed, formal set of inclusion criteria beyond:
• Population: “illegal aliens” or “criminal illegal aliens” who are non‑citizens arrested by DHS (primarily ICE) in immigration enforcement operations since the start of the Trump administration and then removed from U.S. communities. • Criminal threshold: DHS says the page highlights “the worst of the worst criminal aliens,” with criminal histories that may include homicide, rape, sexual offenses against children, assault, kidnapping, robbery, drug trafficking, and similar offenses. Some entries are described as “convicted of” specific crimes; a smaller number are listed as “arrested for” particular offenses. • Selection: The site contains only “some” of the “hundreds of thousands” of people DHS has arrested; DHS characterizes them as among the “most egregious” or “worst of the worst,” but it does not publish an objective scoring or legal standard for which cases are chosen.
No DHS source located specifies whether a conviction is always required; the site itself mixes entries labeled “convicted of” with at least one labeled “arrested for,” indicating both convictions and serious pending charges can qualify.
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DHS has described the WOW database only in general terms, so the exact internal data‑collection and verification workflow is not public. Based on DHS statements:
• Data source: The records come from DHS immigration enforcement operations, primarily ICE arrests and removals, and cover non‑citizens arrested “since the start of the Trump Administration” and removed from U.S. communities. • Data fields: Each entry includes name, country of origin, location of arrest, and listed criminal charges or convictions; some entries note gang affiliation. • Verification: DHS does not publish a specific verification protocol for WOW, but, like other DHS systems, it would rely on existing law‑enforcement and immigration case records that are already subject to DHS data‑quality and privacy‑compliance requirements. • Update frequency: DHS says the page launched with 10,000 arrests and “will continue to update the page,” and later stated it “will continue to be updated at regular intervals,” as it added 5,000 more entries in December 2025 and another 5,000 in January 2026.
There is no publicly available, detailed description of which internal databases feed WOW, which offices vet entries, or exactly how often updates occur beyond these broad statements.
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Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin is DHS’s Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs. According to her official DHS biography, she oversees DHS’s public outreach—including media, digital, strategic, and crisis communications—and serves as the principal communications adviser to Secretary Kristi Noem on external and internal communications.
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Neither the WOW site nor DHS’s public announcements describe a special, case‑by‑case decision role for the President or the Secretary in choosing individual names for the WOW list.
In general: • Statutory authority: The President and the Secretary of Homeland Security have broad statutory authority over immigration enforcement and DHS information‑disclosure policies (e.g., under the Homeland Security Act and immigration laws), which would cover creating a public database like WOW and setting overall criteria. • Operational decisions: Naming and content decisions for specific entries appear to be made within DHS—particularly ICE and related enforcement components—under that delegated authority. DHS press releases credit “President Donald Trump and Secretary Kristi Noem’s leadership” for the enforcement actions and transparency initiative but do not state that they personally approve or veto individual listings.
Because DHS has not published any directive assigning formal inclusion authority to the President or Secretary beyond their general leadership over DHS, there is no evidence they exercise a defined, legalistic role in selecting specific individuals for the public list.
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DHS has not published any WOW‑specific procedure for people to challenge, correct, or remove entries, and neither the WOW page nor related press releases contain instructions for contesting a listing.
In practice, the only clearly available mechanisms are DHS‑wide processes: • Privacy/FOIA channels: DHS’s Privacy Office and FOIA program accept requests to access and correct records held in DHS systems under the Privacy Act and related policies. Individuals who believe DHS records about them are inaccurate can generally seek amendment through those channels, though no guidance states that this will affect WOW specifically. • General DHS contact points: The main DHS and ICE websites provide contact information for public inquiries, but again, there is no published policy guaranteeing review or removal of WOW entries on request.
So far, there is no publicly documented, dedicated removal or appeal process specific to the WOW.dhs.gov website.
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The WOW website does not display or allow filtering by detailed immigration status categories such as lawful permanent resident, visa holder, asylum‑seeker, or undocumented. Public descriptions refer broadly to “illegal aliens” or “criminal illegal aliens” and to “noncitizens” arrested and removed, but the individual entries list only the person’s name, country of origin, location of arrest, listed crimes, and sometimes gang affiliation—not their specific legal status.
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DHS has not released WOW‑specific privacy or civil‑liberties rules, but several general safeguards apply to DHS systems that handle personal information:
• Privacy oversight: DHS states that all IT systems and programs that collect or use personally identifiable information are subject to review by the DHS Chief Privacy Officer and must comply with U.S. data‑privacy and disclosure laws. This includes requirements like Privacy Impact Assessments (PIAs) and System of Records Notices (SORNs) for qualifying systems. • Department‑wide privacy policy: The DHS Privacy Office outlines Fair Information Practice Principles (FIPPs) and requires DHS components to embed privacy protections and transparency into programs, including limits on collection, use, and disclosure of PII. • FOIA/Privacy Act mechanisms: Individuals can request access to, and in some circumstances seek correction of, records about themselves held in DHS systems via FOIA and the Privacy Act.
However, the WOW page itself does not describe any additional, tailored safeguards (e.g., special review standards, minimization rules, or time limits on posting) before publishing names and criminal histories. Those specifics are not publicly documented.
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