Detainees Leaving ICE Detention from the
Bethany Children's Home
Womelsdorf, Pennsylvania
Table 1: Number leaving ICE detention
from this facility
During the most recent 12 month period for which data are available, a total of 102 detainees housed
at the Bethany Children's Home 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 facility for housing juveniles.
Those individuals who departed from this facility because they were leaving ICE detention made up 94 percent of
the 108 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 Bethany Children's Home 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 Bethany Children's Home 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
Bethany Children's Home last year ranked in the top 55 percent nationwide in
the number of individuals leaving ICE detention.
This means that 55 percent of the locations contributed the same or a
larger numbers of exits, while 45
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 lower percentage of detainees (1 percent) left
the country from the Bethany Children's Home 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 Bethany Children's Home was the first ICE facility in which
these detainees were held.
According to ICE records, for some (12 percent) of these detainees, the Bethany Children's Home
was the first place they were sent when they were detained by ICE.
The remaining 88 percent had been
transferred in from another ICE detention facility.
We can also look at how quickly they arrived at this facility after they were first detained.
A total of 76 percent arrived at the Bethany Children's Home at some point
during the very first day they were detained by ICE.
There was considerable variability among detainees in the number of detention facilities
they had been held in before they were finally deported or released from this facility.
The number of facilities ranged as high as 4 separate locations for some detainees.
These figures again are based on an analysis of the most recent 12 months for which data are available.
For the United States as a whole, last year the average number of ICE facilities
detainees moved through was 1.8.
Detainees at the Bethany Children's Home on average had stayed at somewhat more (1.9)
ICE facilities.
92 |
90.1 % |
19.8 % |
9 |
8.8 % |
0.1 % |
1 |
0.9 % |
0.9 % |
0 |
. |
0.1 % |
0 |
. |
11.0 % |
0 |
. |
55.3 % |
0 |
. |
0.0 % |
0 |
. |
0.0 % |
0 |
. |
5.2 % |
0 |
. |
1.0 % |
0 |
. |
1.3 % |
0 |
. |
4.5 % |
0 |
. |
0.2 % |
102 |
100.0 % |
100.0 % |
Table 3: Reasons individuals left ICE detention during the last 12 months
Orders.
The issuance of an order to release the detainee was the most common reason why individuals were
recorded as leaving ICE detention from this facility.
Under an "order of recognizance" an individual is released with reporting conditions while in deportation proceedings and
awaiting a final decision.
A second type of order ("order of supervision") releases an individual after a final order of removal.
Here an individual is released because ICE has not met the time limits the law imposes for deporting the individual.
There were 92 (90 percent) who left the Bethany Children's Home detention for these reasons: 92 with orders
of recognizance, and none with an order of supervision.
Transferred to ORR custody.
A total of 9 individuals (9 percent) left this facility last year because they were turned over to the care and custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR).
Among ORR's responsibility is the supervision of unaccompanied children, including
their placement whenever possible with qualified sponsors or family members who ORR
determines are capable of providing for the child's physical and mental well-being.
Voluntary departure.
Under some circumstances, detainees are allowed to take "voluntary departures" or "voluntary returns."
As with deportation, under voluntary departure a person must leave the country.
However, unlike formal deportation where the individual is barred by law from reentering this
country permanently or for a period of years, under voluntary departure and
voluntary return the individual is not legally barred from reentry.
One detainee left the Bethany Children's Home last year as voluntary departures and voluntary returns.
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 Bethany Children's Home as either escaping or dying last year.
As shown in Table 3, no one was recorded as leaving the Bethany Children's Home during the past 12 months for the following
reasons:
Alternative ATD custody, Bonded Out, Removed, Paroled, Prosecutorial Discretion, Proceedings Terminated, U.S. Marshals or other agency and Withdrawal. See "Reasons for Leaving ICE Detention" for a description of these categories.
Figure 2: Reasons individuals left ICE detention
Comparing Release Reasons Against The National Picture
In many respects release reasons for the Bethany Children's Home departed from the national picture.
No one left because they were deported from this facility, while for the U.S.
as a whole 55 percent left for this reason.
In addition, differences were seen for detainees released on orders of recognizance or supervision (90
versus 20 percent), ORR (9
versus 0 percent), individuals released on bond (none versus 11 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.
Figure 3: Nationality of those
leaving ICE detention
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 Bethany Children's Home had no detainees from Mexico leave ICE detention.
In descending order,
the top nationalities that made up those leaving ICE detention from the Bethany Children's Home last year were:
El Salvador (42%)
, Guatemala (40%), Honduras (17%) and Ecuador (1%).
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%).
Deportations and voluntary departures by nationality.
Within the nationalities that made up those listed in Table 4 with more than one individual, the
proportion deported or voluntarily departing
varied from 0 percent to 2 percent.
As mentioned above, this compares with 1 percent for all detainees.
102 |
1 |
0.9 % |
43 |
1 |
2.3 % |
41 |
0 |
0.0 % |
17 |
0 |
0.0 % |
1 |
0 |
0.0 % |
Table 4: Numbers leaving ICE detention by nationality
during the last 12 months
With the highest rate of 2 percent were detainees from El Salvador where 43 individuals were deported or took voluntary departure.
More than one country was tied with the lowest rate, where detainees were deported or took voluntary departure.