ICE detainers are often used as one indicator of the intensity of what is called “interior enforcement” in contrast to “border enforcement” conducted by ICE’s peer agency, Customs and Border Protection (CBP). The latest detainer-by-detainer internal ICE records recently received by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) provide details on how the use of detainers has been climbing under the current Biden administration. Since February 2023, agency officials have regularly issued more than 10,000 each month.

From FY 2021 through the first quarter of FY 2024, the current administration issued just under 300,000 detainers. These have been addressed to 4,305 different law enforcement agencies. Among law enforcement agencies (LEAs) receiving ICE detainers under the current administration, those in California received the largest number, followed closely by LEAs in Texas. ICE officials issued detainers in over 10,000 separate cases in Houston, Texas, more than any other city in the country. With over 7,800 detainers, LEAs in Los Angeles, California, cumulatively had the second-most issuances, while LEAs in Phoenix, Arizona, together had the third highest with over 6,600.

Although detainer usage under the Biden administration has been rising, 50 percent more ICE detainers were issued during the Trump presidency (FY 2017 - FY 2020). However, the number of different LEAs which were issued detainers was roughly comparable between the Biden and Trump administrations. That is, dispersion of detainer usage across communities in the U.S. was similar, although the specifics of which communities had law enforcement agencies receiving detainers differed somewhat between the two administrations.

Los Angeles, California (20,318 detainers issued) tops the list for Trump, followed closely by Houston, Texas (19,289). Phoenix, Arizona with 17,294 detainers issued during the four years of the Trump presidency was in third place. Just twelve (12) cities in the country received 5,000 or more detainers during the Trump years. A total of twenty-five (25) cities received 3,000 or more.

Most of these top 25 communities received more detainers during the Trump years, but this was not true for all communities. San Francisco, California received 2 percent fewer detainers by Trump than Biden and Van Nuys, California received 4 percent fewer detainers during the Trump administration. The full report identifies 25 additional communities receiving a greater number of detainers during the Biden presidency.

The report contains a series of detailed maps of the United States that pinpoint each city or town where ICE issued a detainer to a local law enforcement agency during the Biden and Trump administrations. Accompanying the report is a public dashboard providing details by month covering the last two decades for each ICE detainer issued as disaggregated by the county, state, name of each LEA, as well as the demographic and background characteristics of the noncitizens each concerned.