News from TRAC

Number of Immigrants on ICE's Alternatives to Detention Monitoring Program Now Steadily Declining After Months of Growth

(28 Feb 2023) After two years of steady growth of ICE’s Alternatives to Detention (ATD) program, the total population on ATD declined from 377,980 in December down to 305,992 as of February 11, 2023. The number of migrants monitored by each technology type has declined, including SmartLINK, a smartphone app that is currently ICE’s most-used monitoring technology.

The total number of migrants tracked each various technologies currently stands as follows:

SmartLINK (268,968)
No Technology (17,497)
Telephonic Reporting (14,197)
GPS Ankle Monitor (5,600)

ICE’s detention numbers have increased slightly to 26,410, but remain well within a range of roughly 22,000 to 30,000 that has become the norm for the Biden administration so far. Texas continues to be the state with the highest number of immigrants in detention, currently at 9,785, or one in three immigrants in detention across the country.

A word of caution: TRAC urges caution when using and interpreting these data since ICE has admitted to producing public errors in this dataset, has not issued corrections to that data, and has further admitted in responses to FOIA requests to not being able to find underlying records to substantiate the agency’s public data announcements. See TRAC’s previous reports on December 14, 2022, December 23, 2022, and January 9, 2023.

Highlights from data updated in TRAC's Quick Fact tool show that:

Immigration and Customs Enforcement held 26,410 in ICE detention according to data current as of February 12, 2023.
16,695 out of 26,410—or 63.2%—held in ICE detention have no criminal record, according to data current as of February 12, 2023. Many more have only minor offenses, including traffic violations.
ICE relied on detention facilities in Texas to house the most people during FY 2023, according to data current as of February 6, 2023.
ICE arrested 6,495 and CBP arrested 15,524 of the 22,019 people booked into detention by ICE during January 2023.
South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas held the largest number of ICE detainees so far in FY 2023, averaging 1,333 per day (as of February 2023).
ICE Alternatives to Detention (ATD) programs are currently monitoring 305,992 families and single individuals, according to data current as of February 11, 2023.
Harlingen's area office has highest number in ICE's Alternatives to Detention (ATD) monitoring programs, according to data current as of February 11, 2023.

For more information, see TRAC's Quick Facts tools here or click here to learn more about TRAC's entire suite of immigration tools.

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