Detainees Leaving ICE Detention from the
San Juan Airport Hold Room
San Juan, Puerto Rico
Detainees Deported or Released Number last 12 months 35 Out of total detained 84 Facility ranking on detainees top 77 %
Table 1: Number leaving ICE detention
from this facilityDuring the most recent 12 month period for which data are available, a total of 35 detainees housed at the San Juan Airport 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 42 percent of the 84 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 San Juan Airport 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 San Juan Airport 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 San Juan Airport Hold Room last year ranked in the top 77 percent nationwide in the number of individuals leaving ICE detention. This means that 77 percent of the locations contributed the same or a larger numbers of exits, while 23 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 (86 percent) left the country from the San Juan Airport 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 San Juan Airport Hold Room was the first ICE facility in which these detainees were held. However, for none of these detainees the San Juan Airport 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 4 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 San Juan Airport Hold Room on average had stayed at somewhat more (2.8) ICE facilities.
Reason Left ICE Facility Profile U.S Profile Number Percent Percent Deported/Removed 30 85.7 % 55.3 % Withdrawal 5 14.2 % 0.2 % 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 % U.S. Marshal or Other Agency 0 . 4.5 % Voluntary departure 0 . 0.9 % Total 35 100.0 % 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 San Juan Airport Hold Room was that they were deported. A total of 30 individuals (86 percent) were deported or removed from the San Juan Airport 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.)
Withdraw entry request. Individuals also leave ICE detention for a variety of additional reasons. One of these is that individuals who have been detained may be allowed to "withdraw" their request to enter the country. If a person withdraws their request, this effectively means they must leave the country. A total of 5 individuals (14 percent) fell into this category. Unlike deportation where the person is legally barred for a period of years and sometimes permanently from coming back to the United States, a person who withdraws their request is not for that reason barred from re-entry into this country.
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 San Juan Airport Hold Room as either escaping or dying last year.
As shown in Table 3, no one was recorded as leaving the San Juan Airport Hold Room 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, U.S. Marshals or other agency and Voluntary Return. 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 San Juan Airport Hold Room departed from the national picture. It was the case that a higher proportion left because they were deported from this facility (86 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 individuals who withdrew their request for entry (14 versus 0 percent), individuals released on bond (none versus 11 percent), detainees released on orders of recognizance or supervision (none versus 20 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 San Juan Airport 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 San Juan Airport Hold Room last year were: Dominican Republic (63%) , Italy (14%), Haiti (11%), Brazil (6%), Colombia (3%) and Malaysia (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%).
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 100 percent. As mentioned above, this compares with 86 percent for all detainees.
Nationalities Ranked in Top 10 Left ICE Detention Total Deported/
Voluntary
DeparturePercent - ALL 35 30 85.7 % 1 Dominican Republic 22 22 100.0 % 2 Italy 5 0 0.0 % 3 Haiti 4 4 100.0 % 4 Brazil 2 2 100.0 % 5 Colombia 1 1 100.0 % Malaysia 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 Italy, where none ended up deported or were allowed voluntary departure.
