Potential Impact of Immigration Raids
Targeting Women with Children

The Obama administration's recent announcement of immigration raids targeting women and children has sparked heated debate. While the administration says that "individuals who were the targets of these efforts were subject to final orders of removal by an immigration court," many have criticized this move as overly aggressive given this highly vulnerable refugee population.

Immigration rights groups have further questioned whether proper consideration was given to these cases before removal was ordered, since so few families had legal representation or the ability on their own to navigate the country's complex immigration laws and procedures. TRAC previously reported that the odds of being allowed to remain in this country were increased more than fourteen-fold if women with children had representation in Immigration Court proceedings.

ICE has not released figures on the number of families that could potentially be targeted in future raids. However, according to the latest available court records, a total of 18,607 individuals in the "women with children" category have been ordered removed by immigration judges during the last 18 months under the court's new priority docketing system. This system was first set up in July 2014 to expedite the processing of these family cases.

Of these 18,607 removal orders, fully 16,030 or 86 percent were issued for cases in which the women lacked any legal representation.

These latest figures involving "women with children" are based on an analysis of case-by-case information by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University. For this analysis, TRAC obtained court records current as of the end of December 2015 from the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

Removal Orders by State and Hearing Location

Almost half (47%) of all removal orders in these cases have been issued by immigration judges based in just two states: Texas and California. In Texas, 88 percent of these removal orders were issued to women and children without any legal representation, while in California 82 percent of these orders were issued to families without an attorney.

As shown in Table 1, there are 20 states in which courts have issued at least 100 removal orders involving women with children.

Table 1. Women with Children Ordered Removed in Immigration Court
by State, July 2014 - December 2015
(Click on column header to sort)
State Total No Representation
Number Percent
U.S. 18,607 16,030 86%
Texas 6,574 5,769 88%
California 2,181 1,790 82%
North Carolina 1,788 1,609 90%
Georgia 1,336 862 65%
Florida 1,211 1,060 88%
Maryland 1,149 1,104 96%
Illinois 848 822 97%
Tennessee 750 713 95%
New York 397 309 78%
Washington 343 269 78%
Minnesota 252 162 64%
Missouri 222 205 92%
Louisiana 182 167 92%
Connecticut 170 129 76%
Ohio 170 159 94%
Nebraska 164 159 97%
Oregon 148 140 95%
Colorado 145 118 81%
New Jersey 107 103 96%
Nevada 102 76 75%
Massachusetts 87 82 94%
Virginia 82 79 96%
Michigan 68 40 59%
Pennsylvania 66 41 62%
Arizona 33 31 94%
Utah 32 32 100%

Table 2 provides further details by court hearing location. The largest number of removal orders for these families (3,369) was issued by the Immigration Court based in Houston, Texas. The second largest concentration of removal orders (2,079) occurred in the court based in Dallas, Texas. Next came the Immigration Court based in Los Angeles, California with 1,392 removal orders, followed closely by the Atlanta, Georgia immigration Court with 1,334 and the Charlotte, North Carolina court with 1,322 such orders.

More detailed information providing the results of TRAC analysis by representation, nationality, outcome as well as court location is available through our updated free online query tool Priority Immigration Court Cases: Women with Children.

Table 2. Women with Children Ordered Removed in Immigration Court
by Hearing Location, July 2014 - December 2015
(Click on column header to sort)
State Immigration
Court
(HQ City)
Hearing Location Total No Representation
Number Percent
Texas Houston Houston, Texas 3,369 2,889 86%
Texas Dallas Dallas, Texas 2,079 2,019 97%
California Los Angeles Los Angeles, California 1,392 1,098 79%
Georgia Atlanta Atlanta, Georgia 1,334 861 65%
North Carolina Charlotte Charlotte 1,332 1,190 89%
Maryland Baltimore Baltimore, Maryland 1,149 1,104 96%
Illinois Chicago Chicago Non-Detained Juveniles 836 813 97%
Texas San Antonio San Antonio, Texas 835 639 77%
California San Francisco San Francisco, California 780 683 88%
Florida Miami Miami, Florida 673 608 90%
Tennessee Memphis Memphis, Tennessee 539 506 94%
Florida Orlando Orlando, Florida 532 448 84%
North Carolina Charlotte Charlotte Juvenile 456 419 92%
New York New York New York City, New York 384 296 77%
Washington Seattle Seattle, Washington 343 269 78%
Minnesota Bloomington Bloomington Juvenile 229 145 63%
Missouri Kansas City Kansas City, Missouri 222 205 92%
Louisiana New Orleans New Orleans, Louisiana 181 166 92%
Ohio Cleveland Cleveland, Ohio 170 159 94%
Connecticut Hartford Hartford Juvenile 167 126 75%
Nebraska Omaha Omaha, Nebraska 161 157 98%
Oregon Portland Portland - Adults and Children 144 136 94%
Texas Harlingen Harlingen, Texas 137 129 94%
Tennessee Memphis Louisville, Kentucky 135 133 99%
Colorado Denver Denver, Colorado 125 110 88%
New Jersey Newark Newark, New Jersey 107 103 96%
Nevada Las Vegas Las Vegas Juvenile 96 72 75%
Massachusetts Boston Boston Juvenile 81 76 94%
Texas San Antonio Karnes County Correction Center 77 22 29%
Texas Dallas Southwest Key 72 69 96%
Michigan Detroit Detroit Juvenile 68 40 59%
Tennessee Memphis Memphis Juvenile 62 62 100%
Virginia Arlington Unaccompanied Juveniles 44 41 93%
Virginia Arlington Arlington, Virginia 37 37 100%
Pennsylvania Philadelphia Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 36 35 97%
Arizona Phoenix Phoenix, Arizona 33 31 94%
Utah West Valley Salt Lake City, Utah 32 32 100%
Pennsylvania York Berks 25 1 4%
Minnesota Bloomington Bloomington - BLM 23 17 74%
Colorado Denver Dilley Texas 15 8 53%
Tennessee Memphis Louisville Juvenile 14 12 86%
New York Buffalo Buffalo, New York 13 13 100%
Illinois Chicago Chicago, Illinois 12 9 75%
California San Diego San Diego, California 9 9 100%
Florida Miami Dilley, Texas (Mia) 6 4 67%
Massachusetts Boston Boston, Massachusetts 6 6 100%
Colorado Denver Artesia, New Mexico 5 0 0%
Nevada Las Vegas Reno, Nevada 5 3 60%
Oregon Portland Portland, Oregon 4 4 100%
Pennsylvania Philadelphia Philadelphia Adults With Children 4 4 100%
Connecticut Hartford Hartford, Connecticut 3 3 100%
Georgia Lumpkin Stewart Detention Center - Lumpkin Georgia - LGD 2 1 50%
Nebraska Omaha Omaha Juvenile 2 2 100%
Louisiana Oakdale Lasalle Detention Facility 1 1 100%
Nebraska Omaha Omaha Immigration Court - Detained 1 0 0%
Nevada Las Vegas Las Vegas, Nevada 1 1 100%
Pennsylvania York Pike County Prison 1 1 100%
Texas El Paso El Paso Service Processing Center 1 1 100%
Texas Pearsall Pearsall, Texas - Detention Facility 1 1 100%
Texas San Antonio T. Don Hutto Residential 1 0 0%
Texas San Antonio Laredo, Texas - Detention Facility 1 0 0%
Texas San Antonio San Antonio Detained Juvenile 1 0 0%
Virginia Arlington Arlington Detained Location 1 1 100%
TRAC is a nonpartisan, nonprofit data research center affiliated with the Newhouse School of Public Communications and the Whitman School of Management, both at Syracuse University. For more information, to subscribe, or to donate, contact trac@syr.edu or call 315-443-3563.