Detainees Leaving ICE Detention from the
El Paso Hold Room
El Paso, Texas
Detainees Deported or Released Number last 12 months 2,635 Out of total detained 2,855 Facility ranking on detainees top 8 %
Table 1: Number leaving ICE detention
from this facilityDuring the most recent 12 month period for which data are available, a total of 2,635 detainees housed at the El Paso Hold 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 92 percent of the 2,855 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 others remained in ICE detention but were transferred from the El Paso Hold 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 1.7 million government records tracking each individual who passed through an ICE detention facility during fiscal year 2015. This most recent 12 month period for which comprehensive data are available covers October 2014 through September 2015. See About the Data.
How This Facility Ranks Nationally
Rankings on the number leaving ICE detention. The El Paso Hold Room was one of 637 facilities nationwide that housed ICE detainees during the most recent 12 month period. Of these 637, there were 358 that had at least 10 individuals who were deported or released. Excluding those facilities with fewer than 10 exits, the El Paso Hold Room last year ranked in the top 8 percent nationwide in the number of individuals leaving ICE detention. This means that 8 percent of the locations contributed the same or a larger numbers of exits, while 92 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 56.3 percent of those leaving ICE detention were deported or "voluntarily" departed. By way of comparison, a lower percentage of detainees (0 percent) left the country from the El Paso Hold Room because they were formally deported, or left under the so-called "voluntary departure" procedure.
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 El Paso Hold Room was the first ICE facility in which these detainees were held. According to ICE records, for all these detainees, the El Paso Hold Room was the first place they were sent when they were detained by ICE.
For the United States as a whole, last year the average number of ICE facilities detainees moved through was 1.8. Detainees at the El Paso Hold Room on average had stayed at somewhat fewer (1.0) ICE facilities.
Reason Left ICE Facility Profile U.S Profile Number Percent Percent Paroled 1,793 68.0 % 5.2 % Orders of Recognizance or Supervision 840 31.8 % 19.8 % Prosecutorial Discretion 1 0.0 % 1.0 % Withdrawal 1 0.0 % 0.2 % Alternative ATD custody 0 . 0.1 % Bonded out 0 . 11.0 % Deported/Removed 0 . 55.3 % Died 0 . 0.0 % Escaped 0 . 0.0 % Release to ORR 0 . 0.1 % Proceedings Terminated 0 . 1.3 % U.S. Marshal or Other Agency 0 . 4.5 % Voluntary departure 0 . 0.9 % Total 2,635 100.0 % 100.0 %
Table 3: Reasons individuals left ICE detention during the last 12 months
Parole. The most common reason a person left ICE detention from this facility was that they were "paroled." The exercise of this discretionary power allows an individual temporary entry into the country, often on humanitarian grounds. Individuals with serious medical conditions, pregnant women, and certain juveniles are among the categories considered. Other categories are individuals who will serve as witnesses in judicial or administrative proceedings, and individuals whose parole is considered by ICE in the "public interest." There were a total of 1,793 individuals (68 percent) who were paroled from this facility.
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 840 (32 percent) who left the El Paso Hold Room detention for these reasons: 665 with orders of recognizance, and 175 with orders of supervision.
Escape and death. Nationally, there were 65 individuals who escaped ICE detention during the latest 12 month period for which data are available, and 6 individuals were recorded as having died in detention. No one was recorded by the El Paso Hold Room as either escaping or dying last year.
As shown in Table 3, no one was recorded as leaving the El Paso Hold Room during the past 12 months for the following reasons: Alternative ATD custody, Bonded Out, Removed, Release to ORR, Proceedings Terminated, U.S. Marshals or other agency and Voluntary Return. See "Reasons for Leaving ICE Detention" for a description of these categories.
Comparing Release Reasons Against The National Picture
In many respects release reasons for the El Paso Hold Room departed from the national picture. No one left because they were deported from this facility, while for the U.S. as a whole 55 percent left for this reason. No one left as a voluntary departure from this facility, while this was true for 1 percent of all individuals nationally.
In addition, differences were seen for for those paroled (68 versus 5 percent), detainees released on orders of recognizance or supervision (32 versus 20 percent), individuals released on bond (none versus 11 percent), and those released to the U.S. Marshal or other agency (none versus 5 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 43.4 percent of all detainees recorded Mexico as their country of origin. The El Paso Hold Room had a smaller proportion of detainees from Mexico - 46 percent among their exits. Detainees from Mexico were also the largest single nationality group among those leaving detention from the facility.
In descending order, the other top nationalities after Mexico that made up those leaving ICE detention from the El Paso Hold Room last year were: Guatemala (38%), Honduras (8%), El Salvador (6%) and Brazil (1%).
This compared to the United States as a whole where the other top five nationalities after Mexico were Guatemala (19%), El Salvador (15%), Honduras (12%) and Ecuador (1%).
For the frequency for each of the other nationalities within the top 10 among those leaving ICE detention from the El Paso Hold Room last year see Table 4.
Nationalities Ranked in Top 10 Left ICE Detention Total Deported/
Voluntary
DeparturePercent - ALL 2,635 0 0.0 % 1 Mexico 1,200 0 0.0 % 2 Guatemala 1,005 0 0.0 % 3 Honduras 210 0 0.0 % 4 El Salvador 153 0 0.0 % 5 Brazil 36 0 0.0 % 6 Colombia 5 0 0.0 % 7 United States 4 0 0.0 % 8 Ecuador 3 0 0.0 % India 3 0 0.0 % 10 China, Peoples Republic Of 2 0 0.0 %
Table 4: Numbers leaving ICE detention by nationality
during the last 12 months
