Transfers of ICE Detainees from the
Port Isabel Service Processing Center
Los Fresnos, Texas
Detainees Transferred Number last 12 months 32,439 Out of total detained 36,608 Facility ranking on transfers top 1 %
Table 1: TransfersDuring the most recent 12 month period for which data are available, a total of 32,439 detainees were transferred by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from the Port Isabel Service Processing Center where they had been temporarily housed to other facilities. The average stay for these individuals before their transfer was 2 days. This facility is an ICE Service Processing Center (SPC). While the facility is government owned, it is operated by the Ahtna Corporation that was in the business of providing detention services for housing federal detainees.
Transfers made up 89 percent of the 36,608 detainees who in one way or another left this facility during the last 12 months. This report focuses just on these transfers. The remaining individuals who departed from the Port Isabel Service Processing Center last year actually left ICE detention. These individuals were deported from the country, released under supervision while their cases was being decided, or left ICE detention for a variety of other reasons. For more information on this facility please 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
Detainee transfer rankings. The Port Isabel Service Processing Center was one of 637 facilities nationwide that housed ICE detainees during the most recent 12 month period. Of these 637, there were 409 facilities that had at least 10 ICE detainee transfers last year. Excluding those facilities with fewer than 10 transfers, the Port Isabel Service Processing Center last year ranked in the top 1 percent nationwide in the number of individuals it transferred to other ICE facilities. This means that 1 percent of the locations contributed the same or a larger numbers of transfers, while 99 percent had a smaller number. See Table 1.
Average length of stay before transfer. Once detainees arrived at the Port Isabel Service Processing Center their average length of stay before being transferred on to another ICE facility was 2 days last year. Ranking facilities from longest to shortest detention stays for their transfer population, this average of 2 days placed Port Isabel Service Processing Center in the top 56 percent of all facilities nationwide. That is, for detainees who are transferred, 56 percent of ICE detention facilities have the same or longer average stays last year, while 44 percent of detention facilities had shorter average stays.
Origins and Destinations
Were these detainees arrested locally? Where did those that ended up being transferred from the Port Isabel Service Processing Center last year originate? Information on the place of arrest was not included in the available data ICE released. However, we can examine whether the Port Isabel Service Processing Center was the first ICE facility in which these detainees were held. According to ICE records, for the vast majority (95 percent) of these detainees, the Port Isabel Service Processing Center was the first place they were sent when they were detained by ICE. The remaining 5 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 97 percent arrived at the Port Isabel Service Processing Center at some point during the very first day they were detained by ICE. This percentage is also based on an analysis of the most recent 12 months for which data are available.
How soon did transfers occur? Nationally, the median number of days before an ICE detainee is transferred to another facility was 1 days last year. That means that half of all transfers occurred on or before the 1st day, while half had longer stays before they were transferred on to another ICE facility. Note that nationally the average stay at an ICE detention facility before an individual is transferred is longer - 12 days. This is because while most detainees have relatively short stays before ICE transfers them elsewhere, sometimes stays are lengthy and these lengthy stays raise the average to above the median stay.
For the Port Isabel Service Processing Center last year, the median stay before a detainee was transferred was one day. This is the same as the national figure. The average stay before transfers occurred was longer - 2 days - than the median stay. As noted above, this figure placed the facility in the top 56 percent among ICE detention facilities nationwide in the average number of days a detainee spent before he or she was transferred.
Where did those transferred get sent? ICE currently has great discretion about where in the United States transferred detainees are sent. For the period covered by these data, ICE divided the country into geographic regions or areas and assigned each to one of 152 document control offices or DCOs for the purpose of keeping track of detainees. Available data allow us to examine whether the transfer occurred within the same DCO or the transfer was to a different DCO. For the nation as a whole during the latest 12 months, 54 percent were within the same DCO, while the remaining 46 percent were to a different DCO.
Transfers Facility Profile U.S Overall
Profile (%)Number Percent Within region (DCO) 33,237 82% 54% Outside region (DCO) 7,098 18% 46% Total 40,335 100% 100%
Table 3: Transfer destinations during last 12 months
Figure 2 and accompanying Table 3 provide some comparative figures for how the Port Isabel Service Processing Center stacks up against this national pattern. Last year, 82 percent of the transfers from the Port Isabel Service Processing Center were to locations in the same region -- facilities under the control of same ICE docket control office. Only some (18 percent) of the transfers went to detention facilities in a different region (DCO).
Nationalities
Which nationalities predominate? Last year in the United States, individuals from Mexico comprised the largest number of those transferred by ICE. Some 41.3 percent of all transfers recorded Mexico as their country of origin. The Port Isabel Service Processing Center had a much smaller proportion of detainees from Mexico - 5 percent - among their transfers. Detainees from Mexico were not the largest single nationality group among the transfers at the facility.
In descending order, the top nationalities that made up transfers from the Port Isabel Service Processing Center last year were: Guatemala (43%) , Honduras (28%), El Salvador (6%), Mexico (5%) and India (3%).
For the frequency for each of the nationalities within the top 10 among transfers from the Port Isabel Service Processing Center last year see Table 4.
Nationalities Ranked in Top 10 Transfers Total To Diff. DCO % Diff DCO - ALL 40,335 7,098 17.6 % 1 Guatemala 17,310 1,084 6.3 % 2 Honduras 11,444 1,388 12.1 % 3 El Salvador 2,583 1,082 41.9 % 4 Mexico 2,146 623 29.0 % 5 India 1,101 432 39.2 % 6 Ecuador 944 425 45.0 % 7 China, Peoples Republic Of 818 333 40.7 % 8 Somalia 788 362 45.9 % 9 Nicaragua 652 312 47.9 % 10 Nepal 450 162 36.0 %
Table 4: Transfers by nationality
during the last 12 months
Out-of-region transfers by nationality. Within the nationalities that made up those listed in Table 4, the proportion transferred out of the region varied from 6 percent to 48 percent. As mentioned above, on average 18 percent of detainees transferred from the Port Isabel Service Processing Center were sent to detention locations outside the region.
For Nicaragua with a total of 652 transfers, 48 percent of transfers were out-of-region transfers. At the other end of the range, 6 percent were out-of-region transfers for the 17,310 transfers from Guatemala.
