Detainees Leaving ICE Detention from the
Shenandoah Valley Juvenile Center
Stauton, Virginia

Detainees Deported or Released
Number last 12 months 32
Out of total detained 78
Facility ranking on detainees top 78 %

Table 1: Number leaving ICE detention
from this facility

During the most recent 12 month period for which data are available, a total of 32 detainees housed at the Shenandoah Valley Juvenile 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. This is a special facility for housing juveniles.

Those individuals who departed from this facility because they were leaving ICE detention made up 41 percent of the 78 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 Shenandoah Valley Juvenile 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 Shenandoah Valley Juvenile 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 Shenandoah Valley Juvenile Center last year ranked in the top 78 percent nationwide in the number of individuals leaving ICE detention. This means that 78 percent of the locations contributed the same or a larger numbers of exits, while 22 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, about the same percentage of detainees (56 percent) left the country from the Shenandoah Valley Juvenile 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 Shenandoah Valley Juvenile Center was the first ICE facility in which these detainees were held. However, for none of these detainees the Shenandoah Valley Juvenile Center was the first place they were sent when they were detained by ICE. All 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. A total of 13 percent arrived at the Shenandoah Valley Juvenile Center 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 6 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 average number of ICE facilities detainees moved through was 1.8. Detainees at the Shenandoah Valley Juvenile Center on average had stayed at somewhat more (2.9) ICE facilities.

Reason Left ICE Facility Profile U.S Profile
Number Percent Percent
Deported/Removed 18 56.2 % 55.3 %
Orders of Recognizance or Supervision 12 37.5 % 19.8 %
Release to ORR 1 3.1 % 0.1 %
Proceedings Terminated 1 3.1 % 1.3 %
Alternative ATD custody 0 . 0.1 %
Bonded out 0 . 11.0 %
Died 0 . 0.0 %
Escaped 0 . 0.0 %
Paroled 0 . 5.2 %
Prosecutorial Discretion 0 . 1.0 %
U.S. Marshal or Other Agency 0 . 4.5 %
Voluntary departure 0 . 0.9 %
Withdrawal 0 . 0.2 %
Total 32 100.0 % 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 Shenandoah Valley Juvenile Center was that they were deported. A total of 18 individuals (56 percent) were deported or removed from the Shenandoah Valley Juvenile Center 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 12 (38 percent) who left the Shenandoah Valley Juvenile Center detention for these reasons: 12 with orders of recognizance, and none with an order of supervision.

Transferred to ORR custody. One individual (3 percent) left this facility last year because she or he was turned over to the care and custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR). Among ORR's responsibility is the supervision of unaccompanied children, including their placement whenever possible with qualified sponsors or family members who ORR determines are capable of providing for the child's physical and mental well-being.

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 Shenandoah Valley Juvenile 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 Shenandoah Valley Juvenile Center as either escaping or dying last year.

As shown in Table 3, no one was recorded as leaving the Shenandoah Valley Juvenile Center during the past 12 months for the following reasons: Alternative ATD custody, Bonded Out, Paroled, Prosecutorial Discretion, 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 Shenandoah Valley Juvenile Center departed from the national picture. No one left as a voluntary departure from this facility, while this was true for 1 percent of all individuals nationally. It was the case that differences were seen for detainees released on orders of recognizance or supervision (38 versus 20 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 Shenandoah Valley Juvenile Center had a smaller proportion of detainees from Mexico - 47 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 Shenandoah Valley Juvenile Center last year were: Honduras (22%), El Salvador (19%) and Guatemala (13%).

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 17 percent to 87 percent. As mentioned above, this compares with 56 percent for all detainees.

Nationalities Ranked in Top 10 Left ICE Detention
Total Deported/
Voluntary
Departure
Percent
- ALL 32 18 56.2 %
1 Mexico 15 13 86.6 %
2 Honduras 7 3 42.8 %
3 El Salvador 6 1 16.6 %
4 Guatemala 4 1 25.0 %

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

With the highest rate of 87 percent were detainees from Mexico where 15 individuals were deported or took voluntary departure. At the other end of the range were detainees from El Salvador, where 17 percent ended up deported or were allowed voluntary departure.

TRAC Copyright
Copyright 2016, TRAC Reports, Inc.

TRAC Immigration Web Site