Detainees Leaving ICE Detention from the
Harlingen Hold Room
Harlingen, Texas
Detainees Deported or Released Number last 12 months 18,808 Out of total detained 31,587 Facility ranking on detainees top 1 %
Table 1: Number leaving ICE detention
from this facilityDuring the most recent 12 month period for which data are available, a total of 18,808 detainees housed at the Harlingen 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 60 percent of the 31,587 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 Harlingen 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 Harlingen 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 Harlingen Hold Room last year ranked in the top 1 percent nationwide in the number of individuals leaving ICE detention. This means that 1 percent of the locations contributed the same or a larger numbers of exits, while 99 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 (5 percent) left the country from the Harlingen 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 Harlingen Hold Room was the first ICE facility in which these detainees were held. According to ICE records, for the vast majority (98 percent) of these detainees, the Harlingen Hold Room was the first place they were sent when they were detained by ICE. The remaining 2 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 98 percent arrived at the Harlingen 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 Harlingen Hold Room on average had stayed at somewhat fewer (1.0) ICE facilities.
Reason Left ICE Facility Profile U.S Profile Number Percent Percent Orders of Recognizance or Supervision 16,674 88.6 % 19.8 % Paroled 559 2.9 % 5.2 % Deported/Removed 520 2.7 % 55.3 % Voluntary departure 463 2.4 % 0.9 % U.S. Marshal or Other Agency 408 2.1 % 4.5 % Prosecutorial Discretion 160 0.8 % 1.0 % Bonded out 13 0.0 % 11.0 % Alternative ATD custody 5 0.0 % 0.1 % Proceedings Terminated 4 0.0 % 1.3 % Escaped 1 0.0 % 0.0 % Withdrawal 1 0.0 % 0.2 % Died 0 . 0.0 % Release to ORR 0 . 0.1 % Total 18,808 100.0 % 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, while nationally the most common reason that a detainee left ICE detention was that they were deported from this country, this was not the top reason at this facility. At the Harlingen Hold Room only 520 individuals (3 percent) were deported or removed 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. 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 16,674 (89 percent) who left the Harlingen Hold Room detention for these reasons: 15,672 with orders of recognizance, and 1,002 with orders of supervision.
Parole. ICE also has discretionary authority to "parole" individuals and give them temporary entry into the country, often on humanitarian grounds. Individuals with serious medical conditions, pregnant women, and certain juveniles are among the categories considered. Other categories are individuals who will serve as witnesses in judicial or administrative proceedings, and individuals whose parole is considered by ICE in the "public interest." There were a total of 559 individuals (3 percent) who were paroled from this facility.
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. An additional 463 detainees (2 percent) left the Harlingen Hold Room last year as voluntary departures and voluntary returns.
Transferred to criminal custody. A total of 408 individuals (2 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.
Prosecutorial discretion. The Department of Homeland Security sets immigration enforcement priorities and guidance on the exercise of prosecutorial discretion (PD), including special programs on deferred action for childhood arrivals. To focus its limited resources on higher priority targets, individuals that don't fall into these high priority categories may -- through the exercise of prosecutorial discretion -- be released from custody and any proposed deportation actions deferred. A total of 160 individuals (1 percent) were released under these PD programs.
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 as dying last year at the Harlingen Hold Room, but there was one escape.
As shown in Table 3, no one was recorded as leaving the Harlingen Hold Room during the past 12 months for the following reasons: Release to ORR. See "Reasons for Leaving ICE Detention" for a description of this category.
Comparing Release Reasons Against The National Picture
In many respects release reasons for the Harlingen Hold Room departed from the national picture. It was the case that a lower proportion left because they were deported from this facility (3 percent) than was true for the U.S. as a whole (55 percent).
In addition, differences were seen for detainees released on orders of recognizance or supervision (89 versus 20 percent), and individuals released on bond (0 versus 11 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 Harlingen Hold Room had a much smaller proportion of detainees from Mexico - 10 percent among their exits. Detainees from Mexico were not the largest single nationality group among those leaving detention from the facility.
In descending order, the top nationalities that made up those leaving ICE detention from the Harlingen Hold Room last year were: Honduras (30%) , El Salvador (30%), Guatemala (25%), Mexico (10%) and Brazil (3%).
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%).
For the frequency for each of the other nationalities within the top 10 among those leaving ICE detention from the Harlingen Hold Room last year see Table 4.
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 51 percent. As mentioned above, this compares with 5 percent for all detainees.
Nationalities Ranked in Top 10 Left ICE Detention Total Deported/
Voluntary
DeparturePercent - ALL 18,808 983 5.2 % 1 Honduras 5,709 0 0.0 % 2 El Salvador 5,685 0 0.0 % 3 Guatemala 4,724 1 0.0 % 4 Mexico 1,912 981 51.3 % 5 Brazil 499 0 0.0 % 6 Ecuador 62 0 0.0 % 7 Nicaragua 55 0 0.0 % 8 Romania 40 0 0.0 % 9 Peru 28 0 0.0 % 10 Eritrea 13 0 0.0 %
Table 4: Numbers leaving ICE detention by nationality
during the last 12 months
With the highest rate of 51 percent were detainees from Mexico where 1,912 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.
