Detainees Leaving ICE Detention from the
Fort Smith Hold Room
Fort Smith, Arizona
Table 1: Number leaving ICE detention
from this facility
During the most recent 12 month period for which data are available, a total of 12 detainees housed
at the Fort Smith 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 almost 100 percent of
the 12 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."
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 Fort Smith 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
Fort Smith Hold Room last year ranked in the top 95 percent nationwide in
the number of individuals leaving ICE detention.
This means that 95 percent of the locations contributed the same or a
larger numbers of exits, while 5
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 (0 percent) left
the country from the Fort Smith 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 Fort Smith Hold Room was the first ICE facility in which
these detainees were held.
However, for none of these detainees the Fort Smith Hold Room was the first place they were
sent when they were detained by ICE.
All 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.
However, none of these detainees arrived at any 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 Fort Smith Hold Room on average had stayed at somewhat more (3.0)
ICE facilities.
12 |
100.0 % |
4.5 % |
0 |
. |
0.1 % |
0 |
. |
11.0 % |
0 |
. |
55.3 % |
0 |
. |
0.0 % |
0 |
. |
0.0 % |
0 |
. |
19.8 % |
0 |
. |
0.1 % |
0 |
. |
5.2 % |
0 |
. |
1.0 % |
0 |
. |
1.3 % |
0 |
. |
0.9 % |
0 |
. |
0.2 % |
12 |
100.0 % |
100.0 % |
Table 3: Reasons individuals left ICE detention during the last 12 months
Transferred to criminal custody.
The most common reason a person left ICE detention from this facility was that they were transferred
to criminal custody.
A total of 12 individuals (100 percent) left this facility
last year because they were turned over to U.S. Marshals or to some other government agency.
This typically occurs because there is an outstanding criminal case against the individual, or the
individual is needed as a material witness in a criminal case.
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 Fort Smith Hold Room as either escaping or dying last year.
As shown in Table 3, no one was recorded as leaving the Fort Smith Hold Room during the past 12 months for the following
reasons:
Alternative ATD custody, Bonded Out, Removed, Order of recognizance, Release to ORR, Paroled, Prosecutorial Discretion, Proceedings Terminated, 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 Fort Smith Hold Room 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.
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 those released to the U.S. Marshal or other agency (100
versus 5 percent), individuals released on bond (none versus 11 percent), detainees released on orders of recognizance or supervision (none versus 20 percent), and for those paroled (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 Fort Smith Hold Room had a larger proportion of detainees from Mexico - 67 percent among their exits.
Detainees from Mexico were also the largest single nationality group among those leaving detention from the facility.
In descending order,
the other top nationalities after Mexico that made up those leaving ICE detention
from the Fort Smith Hold Room last year were:
El Salvador (33%).
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%).
12 |
0 |
0.0 % |
8 |
0 |
0.0 % |
4 |
0 |
0.0 % |
Table 4: Numbers leaving ICE detention by nationality
during the last 12 months