KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) – Across Tennessee counties, Knox County reported the second-highest number of undocumented immigrants charged or convicted with a crime in 2025. A report from the state has broken down charges across the entire state, though it’s also highlighting inconsistencies in data that affect how the state tracks undocumented immigrants charged with a crime.
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That report was released by the Tennessee District Attorneys General Conference Friday. It contained data from 94 of the state’s 95 counties, each of which was asked to report regularly how many undocumented immigrants had been charged and with what.
Knox County ranks near the top for reported undocumented immigrants facing charges
Tennessee’s 2025 Immigration Report showed Knox County reported 981 undocumented people had faced criminal charges, only beat out by Davidson County, which reported 2,477. Knox County’s total represents almost 10% of the state’s total: 11,344.
That said, some undocumented immigrants faced more than one charge. According to the report, Tennessee counties reported a total of 21,648 charges, 2,183 of which were considered violent.
OffenseTotal ReportsTraffic3,955Driving without a License3,771DUI2,920Driving on a S/C/R License1,547Domestic Assault966Capias – Failure to Appear790Public Intoxication707Open Container623Aggravated Assault452Violation of Probation429
Additionally, counties reported only 41 homicides — including charges like criminal homicide, first degree murder, second degree murder and vehicular homicide — committed by undocumented immigrants.
It means about 20% of the 11,344 arrest reports undocumented migrants faced were for violent crimes and less than a percent — about 0.38% — were for homicides.
Inconsistencies and reporting problems affected county data
The state collected its immigration data using a form law enforcement officers often filled out by hand. The immigration report itself said there were issues corroborating reported data with publicly available court data, skewing the report.
A line from the report said gathering data was “hindered by inconsistencies” between the forms and public records like the spelling of names, further hampered by delays in communication with local offices.
“Several reporting errors invalidated responses, leading to their exclusion from the final analysis,” the report said. “These errors include duplicate responses, invalid years… and non-offenses listed under “Charge(s).”
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That’s not all; the report also said it was likely agencies reported citations along with charges. A citation rarely, if ever, results in a person’s detainment. It means the numbers the state is reporting could be inflated.
“[The form] is intended to only record when an individual is taken into custody. There is a likelihood that undisclosed citations were included in the final numbers,” the report said. “Any known citations were removed from the data.”
Taking a look at the full report
The full report is available below. It includes more data, like what countries of origin ranked highest among undocumented Tennessee immigrants.
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