The current administration under President Trump has made a commitment to prioritize the apprehension and removal of the most serious offenders first. However, recent data obtained by NBC News shows a significant increase in the number of individuals in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody who do not have a criminal conviction or pending charges. In the first two weeks of February, this category accounted for 41% of the 4,422 new detainees.
During the 2024 federal fiscal year, the Biden administration conducted 113,431 immigration arrests, with only 28% involving individuals without criminal records or pending charges. When asked for comment on this data, Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, mentioned that immigrants without criminal backgrounds are not necessarily innocent but did not provide additional information.
The latest data from ICE reveals that their detention centers are nearly at maximum capacity. The number of detainees rose from 39,238 in early February to 41,169 in mid-February, nearing the nationwide capacity of 41,500. It remains unclear how many individuals were deported or released through the Alternatives to Detention program during this period.
President Trump had expressed frustration with the slow progress of immigrant arrests and deportations, resulting in the demotion of two senior ICE officials. Limited detention space in ICE facilities has contributed to the sluggish pace, as highlighted in the new data. This situation presents a challenge for officials as they work to make room for new detainees by processing existing ones.
The data indicates that only 13% of current ICE detainees are eligible for expedited removal, while the remaining 87% are undergoing deportation proceedings that could be lengthy. With a backlog of 3.6 million cases in immigration courts, some cases may not be heard for years. Approximately 16,000 detainees are awaiting court dates.
To address the space issue, the administration has opened new detention facilities in Texas and Kentucky and aims to expand the capacity in the Denver field office by 900 beds. Additionally, the government has started transferring detainees to Guantanamo Bay, with plans to eventually hold up to 30,000 individuals.
Despite the increase in detainees with criminal convictions or pending charges, the administration continues to focus on publicizing cases involving serious crimes such as murder, domestic violence, theft, and child pornography. The majority of new detainees are male, with only 22 females booked in the last two weeks.
The data provides valuable insights into the challenges faced by ICE in managing detainees and highlights the ongoing efforts to address the issue of limited detention space.
An overall count of ICE arrests during the Trump administration lacks precision. Initially, ICE was routinely publishing daily arrest figures up until early on in Trump’s second term, but this practice came to an end on February 1. It remains uncertain whether the average daily arrest count continues to exceed the Biden administration’s average of 282 in September 2024, the most recently available data. A dashboard introduced by ICE in December 2023 for summarizing arrest, deportation, and detention information has not seen updates since September 2024. The federal government has ceased monitoring the number of transgender individuals in ICE custody, a component of its prior data collection initiatives. As of mid-January, data indicated the presence of 47 transgender detainees in ICE facilities.
