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Immigrants may be detained for many reasons. They may have a violent criminal record. Some immigrants with no criminal record may end up detained because they are unable to post bond.
ICE may also detain those it deems to be a flight risk or danger to the community, which does not require a prior criminal conviction. In fact, civil violations have been a recent focus of enforcement.
The overwhelming majority of removal cases since May 2016 involved Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials citing people for immigration violations rather than for criminal activity, according to TRAC, a nonpartisan, nonprofit data research center at Syracuse University.
Regardless of the reason for the detention, once housed at an ICE facility, immigrants under deportation orders are significantly less likely to find a lawyer compared with those who aren't detained.
An analysis found that 37% of all immigrants facing deportation, whether detained or not, had an attorney, according to research by UCLA's Eagly. When looking only at detained immigrants, only 14% secured counsel.
The percentages are even lower for those held in a small city or rural area.
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