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The U.S. government spends over three billion a year on the largest immigration detention apparatus in the world to detain and deport people who have lived in the U.S. for decades or who arrived recently seeking safety or a better life. People in detention experience inhumane conditions and rights abuses that include medical neglect, preventable deaths, punitive use of solitary confinement, lack of due process, obstructed access to legal counsel, and discriminatory and racist treatment. The numbers behind the immigration detention system provide a glimpse of the depths of inhumanity experienced on a daily basis by those in detention and the significant public costs, as more taxpayer dollars go towards private prison companies profiting each year off detention contracts. The numbers reiterate the urgent need to halt efforts to expand the system and phase out the use of immigration detention.

 

Immigration Detention at a Glance

 

DEATHS IN DETENTION

23 people have died in ICE custody since the start of the Biden administration.

  • Twelve of those deaths have occurred over the last year alone, more than double the year before.
  • ICE has failed to improve conditions that lead to tragic and largely preventable deaths.
  • A June 2024 report examined 52 deaths between 2017 and 2021, finding that 95% of those deaths could likely have been prevented with adequate medical care.

 

USE OF SOLITARY CONFINEMENT

50% increase since March 2023 in ICE’s use of solitary confinement for people considered members of “vulnerable and special populations.”

  • The average number of consecutive and cumulative days in solitary has more than doubled for this population, which ICE classifies as people who self-identify as LGBTI, have a serious mental or medical illness, are on a hunger strike, or are on suicide watch.

  • NIJC continues to call for an end to the use of solitary confinement in immigration detention, and Members of Congress have joined human rights organizations in calling for an end to ICE’s use of the inhumane practice.
Line chart showing the Number of Placements of People in Solitary Confinement who are members of Vulnerable and Special Populations from April 2022 to July 2024
Source: ICE Detention Statistics

 

LACK OF DUE PROCESS

60% of people in ICE custody are subject to “mandatory detention,” meaning they do not have a right to a bond hearing to make a case for release, which is basic due process.

  • Data on bond access illuminates racial disparities in ICE detention. Human rights groups have found that Black immigrants are less likely to be released on bond or parole, and are forced to pay much higher bonds.

Line graph showing the Number of People in Mandatory Detention each month from July 2023 to September 2024
Source: ICE Detention Statistics

 

PROFIT-DRIVEN EXPANSION

90% of people in ICE custody are held in detention centers operated for profit by private companies as of July 2023.

 

MORE PEOPLE DETAINED IN WORSENING CONDITIONS

37,000 people are detained each day on average, an alarming 140% increase from the start of the Biden administration.

  • ICE detained more than 260,000 people over the last year alone. This includes people who have lived in the U.S. for decades, parents of U.S. citizens, parents separated from their children, and people who arrived recently seeking asylum or a better life.
  • People increasingly protest the abuses they face in detention. As of June 2024, hundreds of people in at least five different facilities were on hunger strikes.
  • ICE often responds to protests with threats and physical force, using pepper spray, non-lethal bullets, and sending protesters to solitary confinement.
ge Average Number of People Detained by ICE Daily from June 2021 to September 2024
Source: ICE Detention Statistics

 

NEW FACILITIES AND CONTRACTS

ICE expanded immigration detention by 50% under the Trump administration.

  • During the Biden administration, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security renewed dozens of contracts and entered into new agreements with private prison companies, including opening the Moshannon Valley detention center in Pennsylvania, one of ICE’s 12 facilities that hold over 1,000 people each.
  • ICE uses more than 190 different facilities for detention across more than 40 states and U.S. territories. The states with the most people detained by ICE are Texas, Louisiana, California, Arizona and Georgia.
  • The Biden administration ended a small number of ICE contracts with some of the most egregious facilities, and ICE terminated agreements in states that banned immigration detention. Now, alarmingly, the Biden administration is seeking to the detention system, issuing solicitations for contracts for new facilities across the country.
Table and U.S. Map Showing Number of People in Detention by ICE Area of Operation
Source: ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Statistics

 

CONGRESSIONAL FUNDING

Yearly funding for ICE detention has skyrocketed to 5 times higher than what it was two decades ago.

  • Funding for detention is providing a windfall for private prison companies with enormous human and public costs.
  • Congress approved $3.4 billion in taxpayer dollars for fiscal year 2024 for ICE to detain an average daily population of 41,500 people - an increase of $500 million from the prior year.
Bar Chart showing Funding for ICE Detention Over Time from fiscal year 2005 to 2024
Source: Congressional Appropriations Bills

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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