WOW is a DHS public-facing website (“Worst of the Worst,” wow.dhs.gov) that aggregates and publicizes information about noncitizens DHS/ICE says were arrested for serious crimes; the content is produced by the Department of Homeland Security and highlights cases handled by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) (particularly ICE enforcement/ERO) and is maintained by DHS (Office of Public Affairs in coordination with ICE).
wow.dhs.gov publishes searchable entries for arrested noncitizens including name, country of origin, convictions/charges, arrest location (city/county/state), and sometimes gang affiliation or other case details; DHS says the page was launched with a set number of records and “will continue to be updated at regular intervals,” but DHS does not publish a fixed update schedule.
ICE determines whether someone is removable (commonly called an “illegal alien”) by verifying identity and immigration status through federal databases and biometric checks, reviewing immigration records (USCIS/DHS systems), and applying the Immigration and Nationality Act criteria (e.g., unlawful entry, visa overstay, or criminal grounds of removability); when officers have probable cause someone is removable they may lodge a detainer and initiate enforcement/removal steps.
After an ICE arrest of a noncitizen with prior criminal convictions, typical next steps are: (1) ICE/ERO detention and possible prosecution by state/federal prosecutors if new criminal charges exist; (2) ICE initiation (or continuation) of removal (immigration) proceedings in immigration court before an Immigration Judge if the person is not already under a final removal order; and (3) if an immigration judge issues a final order of removal, ICE carries out removal/deportation; detained persons have rights to counsel at immigration hearings (at their own expense) and may pursue relief/appeals.
Tricia McLaughlin is Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security; in that role she leads DHS public affairs/media messaging and often speaks for DHS in official communications (including publicity for the WOW site), but operational immigration enforcement authority rests with DHS components such as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and its Enforcement and Removal Operations.
The “70%” claim appears in DHS/ICE communications about WOW and is presented as an internal statistic (e.g., the Dec. 8, 2025 launch notice and subsequent releases cite that “70% of ICE arrests are of criminal illegal aliens charged or convicted of a crime in the United States”); DHS’s press materials do not cite a public statutory source or a peer-reviewed dataset for that exact percentage, so the claim should be read as a DHS/ICE-produced statistic rather than an independently verified figure.