Detainees Leaving ICE Detention from the Buffalo Hold Room

Detainees Deported or Released
Number last 12 months	11
Out of total detained	13
Facility ranking on detainees	top 97 %

Table 1: Number leaving ICE detention
from this facility

During the most recent 12 month period for which data are available, a total of 11 detainees housed at the Buffalo 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 85 percent of the 13 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 Buffalo 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 Buffalo 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 Buffalo Hold Room last year ranked in the top 97 percent nationwide in the number of individuals leaving ICE detention. This means that 97 percent of the locations contributed the same or a larger numbers of exits, while 3 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 (91 percent) left the country from the Buffalo 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 Buffalo Hold Room was the first ICE facility in which these detainees were held. According to ICE records, for the vast majority (91 percent) of these detainees, the Buffalo Hold Room was the first place they were sent when they were detained by ICE. The remaining 9 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. Again, a total of 91 percent arrived at the Buffalo Hold Room 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 3 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 Buffalo Hold Room on average had stayed at somewhat fewer (1.2) ICE facilities.

Reason Left ICE	Facility Profile		U.S Profile
Reason Left ICE	Number	Percent	Percent
Deported/Removed	10	90.9 %	55.3 %
Orders of Recognizance or Supervision	1	9.0 %	19.8 %
Alternative ATD custody	0	.	0.1 %
Bonded out	0	.	11.0 %
Died	0	.	0.0 %
Escaped	0	.	0.0 %
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	11	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 Buffalo Hold Room was that they were deported. A total of 10 individuals (91 percent) were deported or removed from the Buffalo 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.)

Orders. Orders are additional mechanisms that are sometimes used to release a person while their case is pending, or awaiting removal. 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 was one detainee who left the Buffalo Hold Room detention for these reasons: none with an order of recognizance, and one with an order of supervision.

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 Buffalo Hold Room as either escaping or dying last year.

As shown in Table 3, no one was recorded as leaving the Buffalo Hold Room during the past 12 months for the following reasons: Alternative ATD custody, Bonded Out, 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 Buffalo Hold Room departed from the national picture. It was the case that a higher proportion left because they were deported from this facility (91 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 detainees released on orders of recognizance or supervision (9 versus 20 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.

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 Buffalo Hold Room had no detainees from Mexico leave ICE detention.

In descending order, the top nationalities that made up those leaving ICE detention from the Buffalo Hold Room last year were: Canada (27%) , China, Peoples Republic Of (9%), Dominican Republic (9%), Fiji (9%), Guyana (9%), Nigeria (9%), Peru (9%), Portugal (9%) and Trinidad And Tobago (9%).

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%).

Nationalities Ranked in Top 10		Left ICE Detention
Nationalities Ranked in Top 10		Total	Deported/ Voluntary Departure	Percent
-	ALL	11	10	90.9 %
1	Canada	3	3	100.0 %
2	China, Peoples Republic Of	1	1	100.0 %
	Dominican Republic	1	1	100.0 %
	Fiji	1	1	100.0 %
	Guyana	1	1	100.0 %
	Nigeria	1	1	100.0 %
	Peru	1	0	0.0 %
	Portugal	1	1	100.0 %
	Trinidad And Tobago	1	1	100.0 %

Table 4: Numbers leaving ICE detention by nationality
during the last 12 months