Detainees Leaving ICE Detention from the
Fayette County Detention Center
Lexington, Kentucky

Detainees Deported or Released
Number last 12 months 13
Out of total detained 87
Facility ranking on detainees top 94 %

Table 1: Number leaving ICE detention
from this facility

During the most recent 12 month period for which data are available, a total of 13 detainees housed at the Fayette County Detention Center 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. The use of this facility for the temporary housing of federal immigration detainees was arranged through an intergovernmental service agreement (IGSA) under which payments by ICE to another governmental agency are made for housing federal detainees. Additional information about the arrangement, including whether a private company may operate the facility for the government, was not available at the time this report was posted.

Those individuals who departed from this facility because they were leaving ICE detention made up 15 percent of the 87 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 Fayette County Detention Center 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 Fayette County Detention Center 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 Fayette County Detention Center last year ranked in the top 94 percent nationwide in the number of individuals leaving ICE detention. This means that 94 percent of the locations contributed the same or a larger numbers of exits, while 6 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 Fayette County Detention Center 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 Fayette County Detention Center was the first ICE facility in which these detainees were held. According to ICE records, for all these detainees, the Fayette County Detention Center 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 Fayette County Detention Center on average had stayed at somewhat fewer (1.0) ICE facilities.

Reason Left ICE Facility Profile U.S Profile
Number Percent Percent
Prosecutorial Discretion 10 76.9 % 1.0 %
Orders of Recognizance or Supervision 2 15.3 % 19.8 %
Proceedings Terminated 1 7.6 % 1.3 %
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 %
Paroled 0 . 5.2 %
U.S. Marshal or Other Agency 0 . 4.5 %
Voluntary departure 0 . 0.9 %
Withdrawal 0 . 0.2 %
Total 13 100.0 % 100.0 %

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

Prosecutorial discretion. The Department of Homeland Security sets immigration enforcement priorities and guidance on the exercise of prosecutorial discretion (PD), including special programs on deferred action for childhood arrivals. To focus its limited resources on higher priority targets, individuals that don't fall into these high priority categories may -- through the exercise of prosecutorial discretion -- be released from custody and any proposed deportation actions deferred. A total of 10 individuals (77 percent) were released under these PD programs.

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 2 (15 percent) who left the Fayette County Detention Center detention for these reasons: none with an order of recognizance, and 2 with orders of supervision.

No legitimate grounds to deport. Sometimes individuals left ICE detention because they "won" their case. Typically this occurs when an Immigration Judge orders the deportation proceedings ICE has filed against them "terminated" (dismissed) and the judge's order after any appeals becomes final. Analysis of the latest 12 months of data show that one individual was released from detention by the Fayette County Detention Center because a determination was made that there were no grounds to deport the individual and thus ICE had to release him or her from custody.

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 Fayette County Detention Center as either escaping or dying last year.

As shown in Table 3, no one was recorded as leaving the Fayette County Detention Center during the past 12 months for the following reasons: Alternative ATD custody, Bonded Out, Removed, Release to ORR, Paroled, U.S. Marshals or other agency, Voluntary Return and Withdrawal. 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 Fayette County Detention Center 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 PD (77 versus 1 percent), detainees released on orders of recognizance or supervision (15 versus 20 percent), persons whose proceedings were terminated (8 versus 1 percent), individuals released on bond (none versus 11 percent), for those paroled (none versus 5 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.

Pie chart of nat

Figure 3: Nationality of those
leaving ICE detention

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 Fayette County Detention Center had a much larger proportion of detainees from Mexico - 77 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 Fayette County Detention Center last year were: Brazil (8%), Guatemala (8%) and Honduras (8%).

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%).

Nationalities Ranked in Top 10 Left ICE Detention
Total Deported/
Voluntary
Departure
Percent
- ALL 13 0 0.0 %
1 Mexico 10 0 0.0 %
2 Brazil 1 0 0.0 %
Guatemala 1 0 0.0 %
Honduras 1 0 0.0 %

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

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