Detainees Leaving ICE Detention from the
Atlanta District Office Holding Room
Atlanta, Georgia

Detainees Deported or Released
Number last 12 months 902
Out of total detained 1,166
 
Percent change:
from previous 12 months 743 %
from FY 2005 277 %
from FY 2000 -
 
Facility ranking on detainees top 20 %

Table 1: Number leaving ICE detention
from this facility

During the most recent 12 month period for which data are available, a total of 902 detainees housed at the Atlanta District Office Holding Room left that facility because they were deported, were released under supervision while their cases were being decided, or left ICE detention for one of a variety of other reasons. This is a special ICE holding area or staging location that under current ICE detention standards is allowed to temporarily house aliens for up to 12 or 16 hours. These types of units generally have no sleeping quarters or shower facilities.

Those individuals who departed from this facility because they were leaving ICE detention made up 77 percent of the 1,166 detainees housed at this facility during the last 12 months. This report focuses on the reasons these individuals left ICE detention. Sometimes this report speaks of these individuals as those "exiting" ICE detention, or simply as "exits." The other 23 percent remained in ICE detention but were transferred from the Atlanta District Office Holding Room to other facilities.

This report covers those who left ICE custody. It excludes individuals transferred to other ICE facilities. For more information on this facility, including individuals that were transferred, see additional TRAC reports in this series.

This report series is based upon analyses conducted by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University of 3.4 million government records tracking each individual who passed through an ICE detention facility during the past decade. The most recent 12 month period for which comprehensive data are available is for April 2007 through March 2008. See About the Data.

How This Facility Ranks Nationally

Rankings on the number leaving ICE detention. The Atlanta District Office Holding Room was one of 1,528 facilities that were used to house immigration detainees during the last decade, and one of 654 facilities nationwide that housed ICE detainees during the most recent 12 month period. Of these 654, there were 324 facilities that had at least 10 individuals who were deported or released. Excluding those facilities with fewer than 10 exits, the Atlanta District Office Holding Room last year ranked in the top 20 percent nationwide in the number of individuals leaving ICE detention. This means that 20 percent of the locations contributed the same or a larger numbers of exits, while 80 percent had a smaller number. See Table 1.

Deportations. Nationally, the most common reason that a detainee left ICE detention was that they were deported from the United States. During the most recent 12 month period for which comprehensive data are available, nationwide 81 percent of those leaving ICE detention were deported or "voluntarily" departed. By way of comparison, a higher percentage of detainees (95 percent) left the country from the Atlanta District Office Holding Room because they were formally deported, or left under the so-called "voluntary departure" procedure.

Trends in the Number of Detainees Deported or Released

Trends in the number leaving ICE detention. When deportations and other releases during the April 2007-March 2008 period were compared with those in the previous 12 months, the Atlanta District Office Holding Room numbers were sharply up by 743 percent. During the April 2006-March 2007 period the facility processed 107 "exits" as compared with 902 last year. As detailed in Table 1, numbers last year were also up 277 percent as compared with the number of those leaving ICE detention (239) during FY 2005.

Bar chart of fymondt

Figure 1: Month-by-month number of detainees leaving this facility

Longer term exit trends. Greater detail on these long-term trends for those leaving ICE detention from the Atlanta District Office Holding Room are displayed in Figure 1. Here the month-by-month number of exits are graphed against the backdrop of the total detainees leaving the custody of this facility. Exits are displayed with darker shading while those transferred appear with lighter shading. As is readily apparent, considerable variation has occurred over time in both the overall numbers of detainees as well as the volume leaving ICE detention during this period.

Fiscal Year ICE Detainees
Total Exits Percent
1999 0 0 -
2000 0 0 -
2001 0 0 -
2002 0 0 -
2003 41 17 41 %
2004 954 320 34 %
2005 640 239 37 %
2006 109 45 41 %
2007 486 359 74 %
2008 (est) 1,932 1,378 71 %

Table 2: Number of detainees leaving
this facility over the last decade

Exit trends are also summarized by fiscal year in Table 2. Year-by-year figures for the Atlanta District Office Holding Room are given for the total number of detainees as compared with those leaving ICE detention from the facility. The percent of detainees that left ICE detention is also given. (As mentioned above, the remaining detainees were transferred to another ICE detention facility.) Because data for all twelve months of the most recent fiscal year are not yet available, the FY 2008 numbers (October 2007 through September 2008) are estimated based upon reporting for the first six months.

Were Detained Individuals from the Local Area?

Information on the place of arrest was not included in the available data ICE released. However, we can examine whether the Atlanta District Office Holding Room was the first ICE facility in which these detainees were held. According to ICE records, for a few (5 percent) of these detainees, the Atlanta District Office Holding Room was the first place they were sent when they were detained by ICE. The remaining 95 percent had been transferred in from another ICE detention facility.

We can also look at how quickly they arrived at this facility after they were first detained. Again, a total of 5 percent arrived at the Atlanta District Office Holding Room at some point during the very first day they were detained by ICE. There was considerable variability among detainees in the number of detention facilities they had been held in before they were finally deported or released from this facility. The number of facilities ranged as high as 8 separate locations for some detainees. These figures again are based on an analysis of the most recent 12 months for which data are available.

For the United States as a whole, last year the typical detainee stayed in two different ICE detention facilities before being deported or released - half stayed in 2 or fewer facilities, and half stayed in 2 or more. The average number of ICE facilities detainees moved through was 1.9. Detainees at the Atlanta District Office Holding Room on average had stayed at somewhat more (2.7) ICE facilities.

Reason Left ICE Facility Profile U.S Profile
Number Percent Percent
Deported/Removed 744 82 % 72 %
Voluntary departure 110 12 % 10 %
Orders of Recognizance or Supervision 24 3 % 5 %
Bonded out 10 1 % 8 %
U.S. Marshal or Other Agency 10 1 % 3 %
Withdrawal 3 0 % 1 %
Proceedings Terminated 1 0 % 2 %
Died 0 . 0 %
Escaped 0 . 0 %
Paroled 0 . 0 %
Total 902 100 % 100 %

Table 3: Reasons individuals left ICE detention during the last 12 months

Why Did Detainees Leave ICE Detention?

ICE records one of twenty-three reasons a detainee left ICE detention. As shown in Table 3, these reasons fall into ten general categories -- from leaving because one is deported or removed, to leaving because one escaped or the individual died while in custody.

Deportation. As mentioned earlier, the most common reason detainees left the Atlanta District Office Holding Room was that they were deported. A total of 744 individuals (82 percent) were deported or removed from the Atlanta District Office Holding Room during the most recent 12 month period for which data are available. (ICE data did not distinguish between deportations and removals, and the terms are used interchangeably in this report.)

Voluntary departure. Under some circumstances, detainees are allowed to take "voluntary departure." As with deportation, under voluntary departure a person must leave the country. However, unlike formal deportation where the individual is barred by law from reentering this country permanently or for a period of years, under voluntary departure the individual is not legally barred from reentry. An additional 110 detainees (12 percent) left the Atlanta District Office Holding Room last year as voluntary departures.

Orders. Orders are additional mechanisms that are sometimes used to release a person while their case is pending, or awaiting removal. Under an "order of recognizance" an individual is released with reporting conditions while in deportation proceedings and awaiting a final decision. A second type of order ("order of supervision") releases an individual after a final order of removal. Here an individual is released because ICE has not met the time limits the law imposes for deporting the individual. There were 24 (3 percent) who left the Atlanta District Office Holding Room detention for these reasons: one with an order of recognizance, and 23 with orders of supervision.

Bonded out. A group of individuals (10 or 1 percent) were also "bonded out." This generally covers situations where the individual posts a bond and is released while awaiting a decision on their deportation (removal) case. The amount of the bond is set by ICE, or by an Immigration Judge. Many individuals are not eligible to be released because their continued detention is considered mandatory under provisions in the immigration laws.

Transferred to criminal custody. A total of 10 individuals (1 percent) left this facility last year because they were turned over to U.S. Marshals or to some other government agency. This typically occurs because there is an outstanding criminal case against the individual, or the individual is needed as a material witness in a criminal case.

Escape and death. Nationally, there were 92 individuals who escaped ICE detention during the latest 12 month period for which data are available, and 8 individuals were recorded as having died in detention. No one was recorded by the Atlanta District Office Holding Room as either escaping or dying last year. Over the past decade, there was also no record of anyone who died or escaped from this facility.

As shown in Table 3, no one was recorded as leaving the Atlanta District Office Holding Room during the past 12 months for the following reason: Paroled. See "Reasons for Leaving ICE Detention" for a description of this category.

Pie chart of release_grp

Figure 2: Reasons individuals left ICE detention

Comparing Release Reasons Against The National Picture

In many respects release reasons for the Atlanta District Office Holding Room departed from the national picture. It was the case that a higher proportion left because they were deported from this facility (82 percent) than was true for the U.S. as a whole (72 percent).

In addition, differences were seen for individuals released on bond (1 versus 8 percent).

The facility's percentages fell within 3 percentage points of the national figures for all other categories.

Nationalities

Which nationalities predominate? Last year in the United States, individuals from Mexico comprised the largest number of those leaving ICE detention. Some 53.6 percent of all detainees recorded Mexico as their country of origin. The Atlanta District Office Holding Room had a much smaller proportion of detainees from Mexico - 8 percent among their exits. Detainees from Mexico were not the largest single nationality group among those leaving detention from the facility.

Nationalities Ranked in Top 10 Left ICE Detention
Total Deported/
Voluntary
Departure
Percent
- ALL 902 854 94.6 %
1 El Salvador 209 205 98.0 %
2 Colombia 124 124 100.0 %
3 Brazil 109 107 98.1 %
4 Mexico 75 61 81.3 %
5 Ecuador 36 35 97.2 %
6 Jamaica 31 31 100.0 %
7 Dominican Republic 27 27 100.0 %
8 Guatemala 25 24 96.0 %
Honduras 25 23 92.0 %
10 Nicaragua 23 23 100.0 %

Table 4: Numbers leaving ICE detention by nationality
during the last 12 months

In descending order, the top nationalities that made up those leaving ICE detention from the Atlanta District Office Holding Room last year were: El Salvador (23%) , Colombia (14%), Brazil (12%), Mexico (8%) and Ecuador (4%). This compared to the United States as a whole where the other top five nationalities after Mexico were Honduras (11.0%), Guatemala (10.0%), El Salvador (8.4%) and Dominican Republic (1.6%).

Pie chart of nat

Figure 3: Nationality of those
leaving ICE detention

For the frequency for each of the other nationalities within the top 10 among those leaving ICE detention from the Atlanta District Office Holding Room last year see Table 4.

Deportations and voluntary departures by nationality. Within the nationalities that made up those listed in Table 4 with more than one individual, the proportion deported or voluntarily departing varied from 81 percent to 100 percent. As mentioned above, this compares with 95 percent for all detainees.

More than one country was tied with the highest rate of 100 percent, where detainees were deported or took voluntary departure. At the other end of the range were detainees from Mexico, where 81 percent ended up deported or were allowed voluntary departure.

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