Homicides fell 18% during the first half of 2026 as carjackings, vehicle thefts, robberies and residential burglaries also declined, while federal officials linked the nationwide crime reductions to enforcement and deportation policies.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
Crime fell across several major categories during the first six months of 2026, placing the nation’s homicide rate on course to reach its lowest level in at least 126 years, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
Homicides declined 18% compared with the first half of 2025, DHS said in a July 31 statement. Carjackings dropped 47%, motor vehicle thefts fell 20%, robberies decreased 17% and residential burglaries were down 13% during the same period.
The figures were drawn from a July 2026 report by the nonpartisan Council on Criminal Justice, which examined crime statistics from cities across the United States.
Homicides during the first half of 2026, the second year of President Donald Trump’s current administration, were 51% lower than during the first half of 2022, the second year of the Biden administration, The Epoch Times reported, citing the council’s findings.
Other violent-crime categories showed more modest reductions. Aggravated assaults declined 2% from the first half of last year, while gun assaults fell 6%. Domestic violence incidents, however, increased 8%, and sexual assaults rose 3%.
The report also compared the latest data with the first half of 2019, the year before the COVID-19 pandemic began. Homicides, aggravated assaults, gun assaults, sexual assaults, domestic violence, robberies and carjackings were all lower during the first six months of 2026 than during the corresponding period in 2019.
DHS cited several examples of illegal immigrants with criminal convictions who had been removed from the United States. They included a Salvadoran national convicted of homicide and assault, a Costa Rican national convicted of property crimes and burglary, a Honduran member of the Tren de Aragua gang convicted of robbery and a Vietnamese national convicted of armed carjacking.
“President [Donald] Trump promised to make America safe again, and he has done just that,” Lauren Bis, assistant secretary in the DHS Office of Public Affairs, said in the department’s statement. “Crime has fallen to record lows under the Trump Administration.”
“It’s no surprise that this drop in crime coincides with deportations of dangerous criminal illegal aliens. It is common sense. When you remove criminals from the country, crime rates fall,” Bis said.
Then-DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said in a Jan. 20 department statement that nearly 3 million illegal immigrants had left the United States during the first year of Trump’s current administration.
Researchers Examine Reasons for Homicide Decline
The Council on Criminal Justice cautioned that no single factor fully explains the historically low homicide levels recorded during the first half of 2026.
Its report identified several possible influences, including changes in criminal justice strategies and operations, broader cultural and societal shifts and advances in technology.
The council announced July 23 that it would hold a two-day summit in September bringing together specialists in criminology, psychology, economics and sociology to examine the forces contributing to the decline.
“Murder and other crime rates are falling across the map, in cities with different political leadership, housing and economic conditions, policing and prosecution strategies, violence reduction models, and levels of federal enforcement activity,” council President Adam Gelb said.
“Local policies and programs surely matter, but the striking consistency of the decline suggests that macro-level forces are exerting enormous influence as well,” Gelb said.
The White House offered a different emphasis in a July 29 statement, attributing the reductions to Trump administration policies and arguing that safer neighborhoods and fewer victims marked an end to the crime increases of the previous decade.
The White House said the decline was “not accidental.”
“It is the direct result of the Trump Administration’s relentless efforts to enforce the rule of law, back the police, and surge resources into communities,” the statement said.
On Jan. 20, 2025, the first day of his second term, Trump signed an executive order restoring the federal death penalty and described capital punishment as an “essential tool” for deterring and punishing people who commit heinous crimes.
Trump signed a separate executive order that day directing federal officials to enforce immigration laws against all removable illegal immigrants, with particular attention to those who “threaten the safety or security of the American people.”
In April 2025, Trump signed another executive order directing the development of new best practices for state and local law enforcement agencies to “aggressively police communities against all crimes.”
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