Detainees Leaving ICE Detention from the
Kansas City Hold Room
Kansas City, Missouri

Detainees Deported or Released
Number last 12 months 13
Out of total detained 16
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 Kansas City 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 81 percent of the 16 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 Kansas City 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 Kansas City 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 Kansas City Hold Room 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 (46 percent) left the country from the Kansas City 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 Kansas City Hold Room was the first ICE facility in which these detainees were held. According to ICE records, for the vast majority (92 percent) of these detainees, the Kansas City Hold Room was the first place they were sent when they were detained by ICE. The remaining 8 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 92 percent arrived at the Kansas City Hold 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. All detainees either entered and left this one facility, or had spent time at one additional ICE facility before their transfer to the Kansas City Hold Room. 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 average number of ICE facilities detainees moved through was 1.8. Detainees at the Kansas City Hold Room on average had stayed at somewhat fewer (1.1) ICE facilities.

Reason Left ICE Facility Profile U.S Profile
Number Percent Percent
Deported/Removed 6 46.1 % 55.3 %
Orders of Recognizance or Supervision 5 38.4 % 19.8 %
Alternative ATD custody 1 7.6 % 0.1 %
Bonded out 1 7.6 % 11.0 %
Died 0 . 0.0 %
Escaped 0 . 0.0 %
Release to ORR 0 . 0.1 %
Paroled 0 . 5.2 %
Prosecutorial Discretion 0 . 1.0 %
Proceedings Terminated 0 . 1.3 %
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

Why Did Detainees Leave ICE Detention?

ICE records one of 29 reasons a detainee left ICE detention. As shown in Table 3, these reasons fall into 13 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 Kansas City Hold Room was that they were deported. A total of 6 individuals (46 percent) were deported or removed from the Kansas City Hold 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.)

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 5 (38 percent) who left the Kansas City Hold Room detention for these reasons: 2 with orders of recognizance, and 3 with orders of supervision.

Alternative ATD custody. One individual (8 percent) was released from detention under an "ATD" monitoring arrangement. Under ICE's "alternatives to detention" or ATD program, the individual while not detained typically has to wear an electronic ankle monitor and report regularly under a closely supervised release arrangement.

Bonded out. One individual was 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.

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 Kansas City Hold Room as either escaping or dying last year.

As shown in Table 3, no one was recorded as leaving the Kansas City Hold Room during the past 12 months for the following reasons: Release to ORR, Paroled, Prosecutorial Discretion, Proceedings Terminated, U.S. Marshals or other agency, Voluntary Return and Withdrawal. See "Reasons for Leaving ICE Detention" for a description of these categories.

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 Kansas City Hold Room departed from the national picture. It was the case that a lower proportion left because they were deported from this facility (46 percent) than was true for the U.S. as a whole (55 percent). 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 detainees released on orders of recognizance or supervision (38 versus 20 percent), ATD (8 versus 0 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 Kansas City Hold Room had a larger proportion of detainees from Mexico - 69 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 Kansas City Hold Room last year were: Honduras (15%), Cuba (8%) and Kenya (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%).

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 0 percent to 67 percent. As mentioned above, this compares with 46 percent for all detainees.

Nationalities Ranked in Top 10 Left ICE Detention
Total Deported/
Voluntary
Departure
Percent
- ALL 13 6 46.1 %
1 Mexico 9 6 66.6 %
2 Honduras 2 0 0.0 %
3 Cuba 1 0 0.0 %
Kenya 1 0 0.0 %

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

With the highest rate of 67 percent were detainees from Mexico where 9 individuals were deported or took voluntary departure. At the other end of the range were detainees from Honduras, where none ended up deported or were allowed voluntary departure.

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