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Daily Beast
January 14, 2018

‘Lawlessness’ in Immigration Jails for 250,000 Detainees Finally Allowed to Remain in America
By Paul Moses


According to data gathered by TRAC, the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University, records for deportation cases show: Federal authorities have jailed 258,070 immigrants who ultimately prevailed against deportation charges filed since 2000—often after long waits behind bars. Of these immigrants, 78,947 were still in jail when their cases concluded with good news. The prospect of an extended stay in jail leads many immigrants to give up and ask to leave. In the year that ended Sept. 30, 7,293 of 54,290 detainees took voluntary departure, or 13 percent, compared to 242 of the 44,095 released from detention, or .005 percent. Jailed immigrants, that is, were 2,600 times more likely to give up on their cases and return to their homelands. About 1 in 4 of the detainees who were jailed in cases filed since 2000 but later permitted to stay in the United States—and for whom the information is available—had been living in the country 20 years or longer before being arrested.


Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, Syracuse University
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