Detainees Leaving ICE Detention from the
Big Spring Hold Room
Big Spring, Texas
Detainees Deported or Released Number last 12 months 4,134 Out of total detained 5,116 Facility ranking on detainees top 6 %
Table 1: Number leaving ICE detention
from this facilityDuring the most recent 12 month period for which data are available, a total of 4,134 detainees housed at the Big Spring Hold Room 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 ICE holding area or staging location that under current ICE detention standards is allowed to temporarily house aliens for up to 12 or 16 hours. These types of units generally have no sleeping quarters or shower facilities.
Those individuals who departed from this facility because they were leaving ICE detention made up 81 percent of the 5,116 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 Big Spring Hold Room 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 Big Spring Hold Room 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 Big Spring Hold Room last year ranked in the top 6 percent nationwide in the number of individuals leaving ICE detention. This means that 6 percent of the locations contributed the same or a larger numbers of exits, while 94 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, a higher percentage of detainees (100 percent) left the country from the Big Spring Hold Room 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 Big Spring Hold Room was the first ICE facility in which these detainees were held. According to ICE records, for all these detainees, the Big Spring Hold Room was the first place they were sent when they were detained by ICE. The remaining 0 percent had been transferred in from another ICE detention facility.
For the United States as a whole, last year the average number of ICE facilities detainees moved through was 1.8. Detainees at the Big Spring Hold Room on average had stayed at somewhat fewer (1.0) ICE facilities.
Reason Left ICE Facility Profile U.S Profile Number Percent Percent Deported/Removed 4,134 100.0 % 55.3 % Alternative ATD custody 0 . 0.1 % Bonded out 0 . 11.0 % Died 0 . 0.0 % Escaped 0 . 0.0 % Orders of Recognizance or Supervision 0 . 19.8 % Release to ORR 0 . 0.1 % Paroled 0 . 5.2 % Prosecutorial Discretion 0 . 1.0 % Proceedings Terminated 0 . 1.3 % U.S. Marshal or Other Agency 0 . 4.5 % Voluntary departure 0 . 0.9 % Withdrawal 0 . 0.2 % Total 4,134 100.0 % 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 Big Spring Hold Room was that they were deported. A total of 4,134 individuals (100 percent) were deported or removed from the Big Spring Hold Room 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.)
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 Big Spring Hold Room as either escaping or dying last year.
As shown in Table 3, no one was recorded as leaving the Big Spring Hold Room during the past 12 months for the following reasons: Alternative ATD custody, Bonded Out, Order of recognizance, Release to ORR, Paroled, Prosecutorial Discretion, Proceedings Terminated, U.S. Marshals or other agency, Voluntary Return and Withdrawal. See "Reasons for Leaving ICE Detention" for a description of these categories.
Comparing Release Reasons Against The National Picture
In many respects release reasons for the Big Spring Hold Room departed from the national picture. It was the case that a higher proportion left because they were deported from this facility (100 percent) than was true for the U.S. as a whole (55 percent). No one left as a voluntary departure from this facility, while this was true for 1 percent of all individuals nationally.
In addition, differences were seen for individuals released on bond (none versus 11 percent), detainees released on orders of recognizance or supervision (none versus 20 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.
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 Big Spring Hold Room had all detainees from Mexico among their exits. Detainees from Mexico were the only nationality group leaving detention from this facility.
In descending order, the other top nationalities after Mexico that made up those leaving ICE detention from the Big Spring Hold Room last year were: El Salvador (0%) and United States (0%).
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%).
