Decline in ICE Detainees with Criminal Records Could Shape Agency's Response to COVID-19 Pandemic

The latest available data indicate that most civil immigrant detainees held by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) do not have a single criminal conviction. In March 2020, in fact, more than six out of ten (61.2%) had no conviction, not even for a minor petty offense. The latest detailed case-by-case records obtained and analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University also reveal that even among immigrant detainees who have a conviction, few of these convictions are for what ICE labels as serious crimes where individuals are thought to pose a threat to public safety. Just one in ten (10.7%) detainees, less than 6,000 detainees nationwide, have a serious criminal conviction on record as of July 2019-a five-year low. TRAC also found that the proportion of detainees with criminal records varies widely across ICE's nationwide network of detention facilities. See newly updated details here.

These findings continue trends and confirm results on ICE detention practices previously reported by TRAC in its two-part series published last November and December.

In light of new questions about how to manage detention during the coronavirus pandemic, these findings take on new importance.

COVID-19 and Detained Immigrants

The COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic has had a sudden and profound impact on nearly all aspects of life in the United States, and raised significant questions about how federal agencies should respond to the crisis. Given what the CDC referred to as the "unique challenges for control of COVID-19" inside detention centers, public debate has emerged surrounding how Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) should manage the risk the virus poses for civil detainees in the agency's custody. Indeed, some federal judges are already beginning to urge ICE to release at-risk detainees.

ICE published specific guidance on COVID-19 in detention facilities and announced that the agency will temporarily draw down on enforcement efforts by focusing arrests on "public safety risks" and using "alternatives to detention." The agency did not directly address if or how it would use its discretion to release current detainees who do not fall under mandatory detention guidelines. Yet ICE's use of discretion in decisions about arrest and detention has long been influenced by immigrants' criminal histories.

TRAC examined the prevalence of criminal records throughout ICE's detained population to understand the scale of ICE's potential use of discretion and to understand how each detention facility may be uniquely impacted by changes to ICE's detention practices. Our detailed findings are discussed below.


Figure 1. Total Number at Month End of ICE Civil Detainees With and Without Criminal Convictions
(Click for larger image)

Most Detained Immigrants Have No Criminal Conviction

At the end of March 2020, more than six out of ten (61.2%) immigrants held in ICE's civil detention centers have never been convicted of a crime. The current figure is by no means an anomaly. As shown in Figure 1, total ICE detainees at the end of the month during the last five years (spanning the period March 2015 through March 2020) document that the majority of ICE civil detainees have never been convicted of any offense. In fact, these percentages have never fallen below 50 percent since September 2016.

The total number of ICE civil detainees has varied over this period. Starting from a low of 25,780 in March 2015 to a high of 55,654 in July 2019, before falling currently to 38,058. Throughout this period, however, the growth in the number of ICE detainees has been driven virtually entirely by detainees with no record of a criminal conviction, which likely includes many recently arrived asylum-seekers.

The number of ICE detainees with a criminal conviction peaked in October of 2017 at less than 20,000 (19,264), then declined steadily until today. That numbers has fallen below 15,000 during each of the past five months (November 2019 through March 2020). See Table 1 at the end of this report for actual counts. (For more information about TRAC's data sources on detainees, please see sidebar, About the Data.)

Number of Serious Criminals in ICE Custody Reaches 5-Year Low

While most ICE detainees have no convictions, an even smaller proportion of ICE detainees-just one in ten (10.7%)-have committed what the agency defined as serious (Level 1) crimes. Figure 2 displays national trends by the most serious offense (Level 1, 2, or 3) for ICE detainees who have a criminal conviction.

The number of detainees with Level 1 convictions has declined steadily from about 8,000 in October 2017 to less than 6,000 for May, June, and July 2019. Over the same time period, the number of detainees convicted of only a misdemeanor or petty violation (Level 3) overtook Level 1 convictions, a trend which continues despite a moderate decline in the summer of 2019. Level 3 offenses included such offenses as traffic violations, possession of marijuana, public order crimes, as well as illegal entry.

See TRAC's previous report for a more detailed discussion of each of ICE's Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3 classifications. Visit TRAC's free interactive query tool on ICE detention for a complete list of offenses by ICE level of seriousness.


Figure 2. Number at Month End of ICE Civil Detainees with Criminal Convictions by ICE Priority Level
(Click for larger image)

Composition of ICE Detainees Varies Widely by Detention Facility

While national trends are instructive, ICE's detention facilities vary widely in terms of the volume of detainees with convictions, and the volume of detainees who have been convicted of serious crimes. In some of ICE's facilities, such as family detention centers, 100 percent of detainees had no criminal conviction of any kind. For others, such as Clinton County Correction Facility in Pennsylvania and the Northern Oregon Correctional Facility in Wasco County in Oregon, nearly every detainee had some type of criminal conviction.

For example, out of nearly 2,000 detainees held at the Stewart Detention Center in rural Georgia, operated as one of the largest for-profit detention centers in the country, just 14 percent fit ICE's most serious criminal classification category (Level 1) in July 2019. Sixty-five percent of detainees had no criminal conviction at all and about 18 percent fit the lowest level of conviction classification (Level 3). In contrast, Mesa Verde ICE Processing Center in San Francisco, California, held 354 detainees, 42 percent of whom had a conviction which ICE classifies as the most serious (Level 1).

In five detention facilities, half or more of ICE detainees had a serious (Level 1) conviction. These included Val Verde Detention Center in Texas (59%), Charleston County Corrections in South Carolina (55%), Marshall County Jail in Iowa (52%), Phelps County Jail in Nebraska (50%), and Douglas County Corrections in Nebraska (50%). In contrast, some 18 other ICE detention facilities had 5 percent or less of detainees who had a serious conviction.

Many factors contribute to the composition of detainees at a particular facility, but the differences in composition provide additional perspective on which facilities may be most impacted by ICE's use of discretion in managing civil detention during the COVID- 19 pandemic.

Table 2 shows the breakdown in detainees' criminal record for detention centers with at least 10 detainees at the end of July 2019, the most recent month for which TRAC has detailed data providing this breakdown.

Data Provides Perspective, But Responsibility for Detainees Safety During COVID-19 Response Falls on ICE

These results show that most of the beds in ICE detention on any given day are occupied by civil detainees with no criminal conviction or at most a conviction for a misdemeanor or petty offense. ICE possess more flexibility for detainees with little or no criminal history including where they are detained, the amount of staff required for supervision, and the range of options available for release including ICE's alternatives to detention (ATD) programs. ICE's own criteria for supervision and release is more complicated and individualized than just criminal history, and ICE ultimately has the authority to use its discretion according to agency priorities. However, this data provides insight into the number of detainees affected by ICE's approach to detention management at this challenging time.

About the Data

This report combines ICE internal detainee-by-detainee records obtained through TRAC's FOIA requests with ICE's publicly available detention summaries. These public summaries were added to ICE's public website as a requirement of the FY 2019 budget approved by Congress. The combination of these two sources results in coverage for this report from March 2015 through March 2020.

While TRAC submits a new FOIA request for updated data following the end of each month, response times to its FOIA requests vary greatly and the latest custody figures received are for the end of July 2019. In contrast, ICE's began posting detention summaries in April 2019, with the latest as of March 21, 2020.

While TRAC requests data reflecting custody records at the end of each month, what TRAC receives will be records that are not necessarily for the exact last day of the month, but close to that time. The same is true of ICE's posted summaries, although they can as well be updated at irregular intervals during the month. For simplicity, TRAC labels these close-to-end-of-month data by just their month and year.

TRAC also was able to confirm that when the two separate data series overlapped, numbers were closely aligned. And if the exact date each corresponded with was exactly the same, these two sources exactly matched in their counts. Based on this finding, the most recent ICE detainee summaries were used to extend TRAC's detainee-by-detainee data so that a full five-year trend could be examined.

ICE only keeps the most current detention summary on-line which is now available here. The most current summary as of writing of this report was for March 21, 2020. TRAC has been able to download and preserve prior summaries by month and basic counts from these are shown in Table 1 at the end of the report.

TRAC's detainee-by-detainee records are available through our free on-line web query tool. The tool allows users to drill down and examine detainees in some detail by month. Not only can users look for information on detainees for each state, county and specific detention facility, but they can also examine detainees by any one of thirteen additional factors including their gender, nationality, and length of time detained. Other details include the most serious offense for convictions, as well as its level of seriousness based upon ICE's 3-level seriousness groupings.

Table 1. ICE Civil Detainees by Month and Criminal Record, March 2015 - March 2020*
Month and Year Conviction No Conviction Total Percent No Conviction
March 2015 15,781 9,999 25,780 38.8%
Sept 2015 16,419 14,992 31,411 47.7%
March 2016 16,208 15,210 31,418 48.4%
Sept 2016 17,415 21,395 38,810 55.1%
Oct 2016 17,628 23,535 41,163 57.2%
Sept 2017 18,686 18,754 37,440 50.1%
Oct 2017 19,264 20,414 39,678 51.4%
Nov 2017 18,949 21,449 40,398 53.1%
Feb 2018 19,207 21,235 40,442 52.5%
March 2018 19,099 22,169 41,268 53.7%
June 2018 18,515 25,920 44,435 58.3%
Nov 2018 17,922 28,357 46,279 61.3%
Dec 2018 17,733 29,753 47,486 62.7%
April 2019 17,618 31,778 49,396 64.3%
May 2019 17,225 35,240 52,465 67.2%
June 2019 17,113 36,078 53,191 67.8%
July 2019 16,676 38,978 55,654 70.0%
Aug 2019 16,197 36,733 52,930 69.4%
Sept 2019 15,695 35,607 51,302 69.4%
Oct 2019 15,594 33,825 49,419 68.4%
Nov 2019 14,639 30,221 44,860 67.4%
Dec 2019 14,371 27,260 41,631 65.5%
Jan 2020 14,464 24,958 39,422 63.3%
Feb 2020 14,469 24,068 38,537 62.5%
March 2020 14,782 23,276 38,058 61.2%
* For data sources see side-bar, About the Data [link].
Table 2. Details of ICE Detainees' Criminal Records by Detention Facility at End of July 2019
(Click on column header to sort)
Detention Facility No Conviction Level 3 Conviction Level 2 Conviction Level 1 Conviction Total Detainees
South Texas Fam Residential Center (Frio County, TX) 100% 0% 0% 0% 1041
Facility 8 Detention Facility (San Diego County, CA) 100% 0% 0% 0% 33
Berks County Family Shelter (Berks County, PA) 100% 0% 0% 0% 29
Phoenix Dist Office (Maricopa County, AZ) 100% 0% 0% 0% 25
T Don Hutto Residential Center (Williamson County, TX) 98% 0% 0% 2% 482
El Paso Holdroom (El Paso County, TX) 98% 0% 0% 2% 312
Karnes County Civil Det. Facility (Karnes County, TX) 98% 0% 0% 2% 1237
El Valle Detention Facility (Willacy County, TX) 98% 0% 0% 2% 820
Tallahatchie Co Corr Facility (Tallahatchie County, MS) 97% 0% 0% 3% 1291
River Correctional Center (Concordia County, LA) 97% 0% 0% 3% 551
San Luis Regional Det Center (Yuma County, AZ) 96% 1% 1% 4% 200
Rio Grande Detention Center (Webb County, TX) 95% 0% 0% 4% 707
Wyatt Detention Center (Providence County, RI) 95% 0% 0% 5% 136
Brooks County Jail (Contract) (Brooks County, TX) 95% 0% 1% 4% 95
Jackson Parish Correctional Center (Jackson County, LA) 94% 0% 0% 6% 1021
Winn Corr Institute (Winn County, LA) 93% 1% 0% 6% 1433
Richwood Cor Center (Monroe County, LA) 93% 0% 0% 7% 908
Laredo Processing Center (Webb County, TX) 93% 1% 1% 5% 440
Basile Detention Center (Evangeline County, LA) 92% 0% 0% 8% 858
La Palma Correctional Center (Pinal County, AZ) 92% 1% 0% 7% 1611
Bossier Parish Cor. Center (Bossier County, LA) 91% 0% 0% 9% 312
Denver Cdf II (Arapahoe County, CO) 91% 1% 0% 9% 358
Kay Co Justice Facility (Kay County, OK) 90% 0% 0% 10% 94
IAH Secure Adult Det. Facility (Polk County, TX) 90% 2% 1% 7% 983
Coastal Bend Det. Facility (Nueces County, TX) 90% 0% 0% 9% 371
Port Isabel SPC (Cameron County, TX) 90% 3% 1% 6% 1395
Imperial Regional Adult Det Fac (Imperial County, CA) 88% 7% 1% 3% 620
La Palma Corr Ctr Apso (Pinal County, AZ) 88% 1% 0% 11% 1290
Limestone Det Center (Limestone County, TX) 88% 0% 0% 12% 563
Broward Transitional Center (Broward County, FL) 87% 0% 1% 12% 687
Cibola County Correctional Center (Cibola County, NM) 86% 2% 2% 9% 413
Eloy Federal Contract Fac (Pinal County, AZ) 86% 4% 1% 8% 1603
Teller County Jail (Teller County, CO) 86% 9% 2% 2% 43
Rolling Plains Detention Center (Haskell County, TX) 86% 3% 2% 10% 235
Allen Parish Public Safety Complex (Allen County, LA) 85% 0% 0% 15% 120
Montgomery County Jail (Montgomery County, TX) 85% 4% 1% 10% 801
Webb County Detention Center (CCA) (Webb County, TX) 84% 6% 2% 7% 526
La Salle Co Regional Det. Center (La Salle County, TX) 82% 0% 0% 18% 93
Adams County Det Center (Adams County, MS) 81% 11% 3% 5% 330
Pine Prairie Ice Processing Center (Evangeline County, LA) 80% 4% 2% 15% 939
Alamance Co. Det. Facility (Alamance County, NC) 79% 5% 2% 15% 62
Okmulgee County Jail (Okmulgee County, OK) 79% 3% 1% 17% 229
Elizabeth Contract D.F. (Union County, NJ) 78% 3% 4% 15% 298
Caldwell County Jail (Caldwell County, MO) 77% 0% 4% 19% 26
CCA Northeast Oh Corrects (Mahoning County, OH) 76% 8% 2% 15% 338
Seneca County Jail (Seneca County, OH) 75% 6% 4% 15% 52
Florence SPC (Pinal County, AZ) 73% 1% 1% 25% 370
Platte County Jail (Platte County, MO) 73% 9% 0% 18% 11
St Tammany Parish Jail (Saint Tammany County, LA) 73% 0% 0% 27% 11
Otay Mesa Detention Center (San Diego County, CA) 73% 15% 4% 9% 1024
Eden Detention Ctr (Concho County, TX) 72% 0% 0% 28% 25
West Texas Detention Facility (Hudspeth County, TX) 72% 2% 3% 24% 425
Frederick County Det. Cen (Frederick County, MD) 71% 3% 0% 26% 31
Folkston Ice Processing Center (Charlton County, GA) 70% 5% 3% 22% 648
Otero Co Processing Center (Dona Ana County, NM) 67% 3% 5% 24% 798
Houston Contract Det.Fac. (Harris County, TX) 67% 8% 5% 20% 845
Christian Co Sheriff Dept (Christian County, MO) 67% 17% 0% 17% 18
Catahoula Correctional Center (Rapides County, LA) 66% 5% 5% 24% 320
Suffolk Hoc Sbay (Suffolk County, MA) 66% 20% 4% 10% 167
Kenosha County Jail (Kenosha County, WI) 66% 13% 4% 18% 175
Stewart Detention Center (Stewart County, GA) 65% 14% 4% 18% 1969
Plymouth Co Cor Facilty (Plymouth County, MA) 65% 17% 4% 15% 367
South Texas ICE Processing Center (Frio County, TX) 63% 5% 3% 29% 1996
East Hidalgo Detention Center (Hidalgo County, TX) 61% 17% 5% 17% 41
Irwin County Detention Center (Irwin County, GA) 60% 14% 4% 22% 894
Chase County Jail (Chase County, KS) 59% 14% 2% 24% 98
Alexandria Staging Facility (Rapides County, LA) 59% 14% 5% 21% 338
Kandiyohi Co. Jail (Kandiyohi County, MN) 58% 19% 4% 19% 91
Tacoma ICE Processing Center (Pierce County, WA) 56% 21% 7% 16% 1309
Strafford Co. Correction (Strafford County, NH) 55% 14% 8% 23% 150
El Paso SPC (El Paso County, TX) 55% 9% 6% 30% 806
ICA - Farmville (Prince Edward County, VA) 55% 20% 6% 19% 563
Denver Contract Det. Fac. (Arapahoe County, CO) 55% 21% 4% 20% 817
McHenry County Sheriff's (Mchenry County, IL) 54% 14% 5% 26% 267
Robert A Deyton Detention Fac (Clayton County, GA) 53% 16% 2% 28% 43
Monroe County Detention-Dorm (Monroe County, MI) 52% 2% 14% 32% 50
Florence Staging Facility (Pinal County, AZ) 51% 18% 1% 29% 78
Larkin Hospital (Miami-Dade County, FL) 50% 20% 10% 20% 10
Worcester Co. Jail (Worcester County, MD) 49% 25% 5% 21% 144
York County Jail, PA (York County, PA) 49% 26% 7% 18% 785
Chippewa Co., SSM (Chippewa County, MI) 49% 36% 5% 10% 39
Sherburne County Jail (Sherburne County, MN) 48% 22% 7% 22% 295
Prairieland Detention Center (Johnson County, TX) 48% 27% 5% 20% 691
Buffalo SPC (Genesee County, NY) 48% 25% 8% 18% 649
Adelanto ICE Processing Center (San Bernardino County, CA) 48% 25% 7% 20% 1723
Calhoun Co., Battle Cr, MI (Branch County, MI) 48% 12% 8% 32% 188
LaSalle ICE Processing Center (La Salle County, LA) 48% 20% 4% 28% 1096
Geauga County Jail (Geauga County, OH) 46% 11% 9% 34% 65
Collier County Sheriff (Collier County, FL) 46% 8% 15% 31% 13
Kankakee County Jail (Kankakee County, IL) 46% 27% 7% 20% 129
Essex County Jail (Essex County, NJ) 45% 27% 8% 20% 784
Bristol Cnty NDartmouth (Bristol County, MA) 45% 34% 8% 13% 181
Montgomery Processing Ctr (Montgomery County, TX) 45% 19% 11% 25% 1014
St. Clair County Jail (Saint Clair County, MI) 44% 27% 7% 22% 41
Krome North SPC (Miami-Dade County, FL) 43% 24% 9% 23% 653
Johnson County Jail (Johnson County, TX) 43% 20% 9% 28% 361
Pulaski County Jail (Pulaski County, IL) 42% 14% 10% 34% 198
Polk County Jail (Polk County, IA) 42% 17% 6% 36% 36
Caroline Detention Facility (Caroline County, VA) 42% 21% 9% 29% 363
Henderson Detention (Clark County, NV) 41% 20% 8% 31% 179
Etowah County Jail (AL) (Etowah County, AL) 40% 26% 10% 24% 264
Morgan County Sheriff's Dept (Morgan County, MO) 40% 19% 17% 25% 53
Bergen County Jail (Bergen County, NJ) 40% 24% 9% 28% 273
Tulsa County Jail (Tulsa County, OK) 40% 21% 3% 36% 91
Dodge County Jail, Juneau (Dodge County, WI) 40% 16% 5% 40% 129
Pike County Jail (Pike County, PA) 39% 26% 5% 29% 206
Folkston ICE Process Ctr Anx (Charlton County, GA) 39% 26% 9% 26% 279
Val Verde Detention Center (Val Verde County, TX) 38% 2% 1% 59% 256
Honolulu Federal Detention Center (Honolulu County, HI) 38% 29% 15% 18% 34
Orange County Jail (Orange County, NY) 38% 22% 8% 32% 157
Nevada Southern Detention Center (Nye County, NV) 37% 25% 6% 31% 236
Hudson County Jail (Hudson County, NJ) 35% 27% 9% 30% 360
Baker County Sheriff Dept. (Baker County, FL) 35% 29% 7% 29% 243
Columbia Care Center (Richland County, SC) 33% 17% 22% 28% 18
Phelps County Jail (Phelps County, NE) 33% 8% 8% 50% 12
Freeborn County Jail, MN (Freeborn County, MN) 32% 28% 18% 23% 57
Cass County Jail (Cass County, NE) 32% 26% 16% 26% 19
Mesa Verde ICE Processing Center (Kern County, CA) 31% 42% 11% 16% 354
Morrow Co. Correctional Facility (Morrow County, OH) 30% 26% 2% 42% 43
Butler County Jail (Butler County, OH) 30% 23% 6% 42% 101
Virginia Peninsula Reg. Jail (James City County, VA) 29% 37% 6% 29% 52
Cambria County Jail, PA (Cambria County, PA) 27% 45% 14% 14% 22
Glades County Detention Center (Glades County, FL) 27% 32% 14% 27% 438
Clay County Justice Center (Clay County, IN) 26% 26% 17% 31% 42
Wakulla County Jail (Wakulla County, FL) 26% 38% 9% 28% 120
Cache Co. Jail (Cache County, UT) 25% 33% 14% 28% 36
Boone County Jail (Boone County, KY) 24% 22% 12% 42% 136
Monroe County Jail (Monroe County, FL) 24% 31% 13% 32% 84
Carver County Jail (Carver County, MN) 20% 35% 0% 45% 20
Hall County Sheriff (Hall County, NE) 20% 34% 12% 34% 91
Howard County Det Cntr (Howard County, MD) 20% 38% 13% 29% 76
CCA, Florence Correctional Center (Pinal County, AZ) 19% 36% 13% 32% 320
Charleston County Correct (Charleston County, SC) 18% 9% 18% 55% 11
Hardin Co Jail (Hardin County, IA) 17% 33% 11% 39% 66
Franklin House Of Corrections (Franklin County, MA) 16% 55% 6% 23% 31
Nye County Sheriff-Pahrump (Nye County, NV) 16% 42% 0% 42% 31
Marshall County Jail (Marshall County, IA) 14% 29% 5% 52% 21
Yuba County Jail (Yuba County, CA) 11% 55% 10% 23% 184
Douglas County Correction (Douglas County, NE) 6% 31% 13% 50% 16
Clinton County Corr. Fac. (Clinton County, PA) 5% 59% 20% 16% 61
Northern Oregon Corr. Fac. (Wasco County, OR) 5% 57% 19% 19% 21
Total 70% 11% 4% 16% 55,654