Detainees Leaving ICE Detention from the
Arizona Removal Operations Coordination Center (Arocc)
Phoenix, Arizona

Detainees Deported or Released
Number last 12 months 1,350
Out of total detained 1,596
Facility ranking on detainees top 13 %

Table 1: Number leaving ICE detention
from this facility

During the most recent 12 month period for which data are available, a total of 1,350 detainees housed at the Arizona Removal Operations Coordination Center (Arocc) 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 1,596 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 Arizona Removal Operations Coordination Center (Arocc) 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 Arizona Removal Operations Coordination Center (Arocc) 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 Arizona Removal Operations Coordination Center (Arocc) last year ranked in the top 13 percent nationwide in the number of individuals leaving ICE detention. This means that 13 percent of the locations contributed the same or a larger numbers of exits, while 87 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 Arizona Removal Operations Coordination Center (Arocc) 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 Arizona Removal Operations Coordination Center (Arocc) was the first ICE facility in which these detainees were held. However, for none of these detainees the Arizona Removal Operations Coordination Center (Arocc) 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 13 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 Arizona Removal Operations Coordination Center (Arocc) on average had stayed at somewhat more (3.6) ICE facilities.

Reason Left ICE Facility Profile U.S Profile
Number Percent Percent
Deported/Removed 1,349 99.9 % 55.3 %
U.S. Marshal or Other Agency 1 0.0 % 4.5 %
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 %
Voluntary departure 0 . 0.9 %
Withdrawal 0 . 0.2 %
Total 1,350 100.0 % 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 Arizona Removal Operations Coordination Center (Arocc) was that they were deported. A total of 1,349 individuals (100 percent) were deported or removed from the Arizona Removal Operations Coordination Center (Arocc) 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 Arizona Removal Operations Coordination Center (Arocc) as either escaping or dying last year.

As shown in Table 3, no one was recorded as leaving the Arizona Removal Operations Coordination Center (Arocc) 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, Voluntary Return and Withdrawal. See "Reasons for Leaving ICE Detention" for a description of these categories.

Pie chart of release_grp

Figure 2: Reasons individuals left ICE detention

Comparing Release Reasons Against The National Picture

In many respects release reasons for the Arizona Removal Operations Coordination Center (Arocc) 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 those released to the U.S. Marshal or other agency (0 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.

Pie chart of nat

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 Arizona Removal Operations Coordination Center (Arocc) had no detainees from Mexico 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 Arizona Removal Operations Coordination Center (Arocc) last year were: Honduras (48%) , El Salvador (44%), Guatemala (8%), Mexico (0%), Panama (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%).

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 83 percent to 100 percent. As mentioned above, this compares with 100 percent for all detainees.

Nationalities Ranked in Top 10 Left ICE Detention
Total Deported/
Voluntary
Departure
Percent
- ALL 1,350 1,349 99.9 %
1 Honduras 644 644 100.0 %
2 El Salvador 588 588 100.0 %
3 Guatemala 110 110 100.0 %
4 Mexico 6 5 83.3 %
5 Panama 1 1 100.0 %
United States 1 1 100.0 %

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

More than one country was tied with the highest rate of 100 percent, where detainees were deported or took voluntary departure. At the other end of the range were detainees from Mexico, where 83 percent ended up deported or were allowed voluntary departure.

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