Featured Issue: Immigration Detention and Alternatives to Detention
Update: On March 14, 2025, AILA released a statement in response to the Trump Administration resuming the practice of detaining families pending their court proceedings in the detention facility in Karnes County, TX, and indicating its plans to use a second facility in Dilley, TX, for family detention.
AILA calls on Congress to significantly reduce and phase out the use of immigration detention for immigration enforcement purposes. Detention is costly, leads to inefficiencies in processing cases, and has a long track record of human rights abuses. Community-based case management services and legal representation is more humane and should be offered to noncitizens to support their compliance of immigration obligations.
Contents
By the Numbers
- Book Outs/Books In: The Office of Homeland Security Statistics provides data on the number of migrants who are released from CBP custody to proceed with removal cases, transfers to ICE detention, and transfers to Health & Human Services (HHS). It also provides initial book-in data on ICE detention.
- Detention: For FY2024, Congress has provided funding to detain a daily average of 41,500 noncitizens at a cost of approximately $3.4 billion. During FY2023, Congress provided funding to detain a daily average of 34,000 noncitizens at a cost of approximately $2.9 billion. A December 2024 ICE memo in response to Congressional requests for information noted that increasing detention capacity by more than 60,000 beds will require a funding increase of approximately $3.2 billion dollars.
- Current Population: Per ICE, on December 8, 2024, there were 39,062 people in custody and on January 22, 2025, there were 39,703. For future data, see bi-weekly data posted on the ICE website under “Fiscal Year 2025 statistics” here.
- Daily Costs: Projected average daily costs of detaining an adult noncitizen: $164.65. The actual cost of detaining a noncitizen varies based on geographic region, length of detention, facility type, etc. A recent ICE memo in response to the costs of expanding detention noted that they expect a 5% inflationary increase from FY2024 enacted bed costs.
- Deaths at Adult Detention Centers - AILA supplies a continually updated list of ICE press releases announcing deaths in adult immigration detention. Note: there can be delays in ICE’s reporting of deaths and there have been instances of seriously ill individuals released from ICE custody, whose deaths are not included in this list.
- ICE Alternatives to Detention: For FY2024, Congress provided approximately $470 million in funding for ICE’s Alternatives to Detention (ADT) program. This is an increase from approximately $443 million in FY2023 in which 194,427 people were enrolled.
- Daily Costs of ICE ATD: Average daily cost for participants enrolled in ICE’s Intensive Appearance Supervision Program (ISAP): $8.00
- Community-Based Case Management: The FEMA/CRCL Case Management Pilot Program (CMPP), also known as the “Alternatives to Detention Grant Program,” received $15 million in continued funding for FY2024. Prior to January 20, 2025, it was operating in five cities.
- Average daily cost of providing case management for individual family members by a community-based organization (2018 pilot): $14.05
- Legal Representation: There is no right to a government-provided attorney in immigration court and 70 percent of detained persons face proceedings without counsel. There is a pilot program that serves adult individuals with mental disabilities. Congress did not provide any funding for adult legal representation for FY2024.
AILA’s Recommendations to Congress
- Reduce detention funding to at least 25,000 average daily population or less.
- Explicitly prohibit detention funding from being used to detain families and children in custodial settings.
- Provide continued funding community-based case management programs outside of ICE such as the Case Management Pilot Program (CMPP) operated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL)
- Conduct robust oversight of past congressional appropriations transparency requirements and continue to require ICE to disclose and publish information relating to detention contracts, inspection process and reports, detention data, and policies for the alternatives to detention program.
Background
Created in 2002, Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) has over 22,000 full-time employees, with a total annual budget of more than $9 billion. The agency has three core operational directorates: Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), and the Office of the Principal Legal Advisor (OPLA). Housed within the Department of Homeland Security, ICE joins Customs & Border Protection (CBP) in making up the nation’s largest police force.
Immigration enforcement, including taking noncitizens into custody, is the largest single area of responsibility for ICE. ICE detains noncitizens arrested from the interior of the country and those transferred from the border. Twenty-years ago, the average daily population of detained immigrants was approximately 7,000. During the first Trump Administration, it reached a height of 50,000 average daily population. Regardless of the circumstances of their first encounter with authorities, noncitizens are detained across America in a sprawling network of private and public detention facilities. Most of these facilities operate through contracts between ICE (or, less commonly, the U.S. Marshals Service) and localities for the purposes of detaining noncitizens. In some cases, localities later sub-contract services for operating detention facilities to private prison companies. In other instances, localities reserve space in local, county, or state jails and prisons for the purposes of detaining immigrants. In all cases, localities are financially incentivized to detain individuals to increase profit margins from contracts. One key part of the financial equation is the use of noncitizens to clean and maintain facilities in exchange for $1 a day.
Immigration detention facilities, regardless of the type of contracts, have been the sites of serious and repeated allegations of abuse, including allegations of sexual assault, violations of religious freedom, medical neglect, and the punitive use of solitary confinement. In 2020, the U.S. had the highest number of deaths in ICE adult detention since 2005. Several deaths in custody have been found to have been preventable. Conditions in ICE custody have been described as “barbaric” and “negligent” by DHS experts.
Civil immigration detention works mainly to facilitate deportation. While ICE has the authority to allow most noncitizens to continue with their removal cases on the outside of custody, it often defaults to detention based on alleged “flight risk or threat to public safety.” The vagueness of these concepts frequently works against the liberty interests of noncitizens and there is generally a lack of uniformity when it comes to these discretionary releases. Only a certain portion of the overall noncitizen population must be detained under “mandatory detention” laws and even those individuals may be released based on certain exceptions.
Lastly, because immigration detention is considered “civil,” indigent noncitizens are not generally provided counsel. As a result, representation rates for noncitizens in detention are as low as 14% and directly correlate with the ability to secure release or long-term protection.
Reports and Briefings
- "No Human Being Should Be Held There": The Mistreatment of LGBTQ and HIV-Positive People in U.S. Federal Immigration Jails
- Physicians for Human Rights: Endless Nightmare”: Torture and Inhuman Treatment in Solitary Confinement in U.S. Immigration Detention
- Harvard University Press Release: New Report Documents the Mental and Physical Harm Experienced by Children in Immigration Detention
- AILA Policy Brief: Case Management: An Effective and Humane Alternative to Detention - November 2, 2022
- AILA Policy Brief: Moving The Nation Forward by Leaving Immigration Detention Behind - March 25, 2021
- The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA): Emergency Medical Responses at US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Detention Centers in California -November 29, 2023
- Notable findings include: a number of EMS calls for pregnant people at Otay Mesa; a shockingly low number of 911 calls for psychiatric emergencies, despite the high number of complaints of serious mental health issues in the detention centers; nearly a third of all detained people had an abnormal vital sign when EMS encountered them, a disturbing trend given the association between abnormal vital signs and deaths in ICE custody; and finally, the number of emergency calls that the authors could find in EMS systems was significantly lower than the number of ICE-reported medical emergencies, a serious discrepancy that calls into question why ICE facilities aren’t calling 911 more frequently when there is an emergency happening.
- Black Alliance for Just Immigration: Uncovering the Truth: Violence and Abuse Against Black Migrants in Immigration Detention - October 2022
- Oxfam America and the Tahirih Justice Center: Surviving Deterrence: How U.S. Asylum Deterrence Policies Normalize Gender-Based Violence, October 11, 2022
- Law Professor César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández, TED Talk, The US can move past immigration prisons—and towards justice, July 27, 2022
- Alternatives to Detention: An Overview – American Immigration Council Fact Sheet, March 17, 2022
- Community Support for Migrants Navigating the U.S. Immigration System - February 26, 2021
- American Immigration Council Special Report: "Measuring In Absentia Removal in Immigration Court," Ingrid Eagly, Esq. and Steven Shafer, Esq. - January 28, 2021
Government Reports
- DHS Office of Inspector General: website has search function to view ICE detention audits, inspections, and evaluations completed by DHS OIG.
- ICE FOIA Library: Holds detention facility contracts, facility reviews, among other required posting information.
- U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO): Agency within the legislative branch that provides auditing, evaluative, and investigative services for the United States Congress. Website has search function to view audits done of ICE detention programs and policies.
- Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman Annual Report– June 20, 2023. As of January 29, 2025, the 2024 Annual Report had not been published.
- DHS Office of Civil Rights & Civil Liberties Recommendation and Investigation Memo Collection: CRCL investigates abuses in immigration detention. CRCL issues recommendations to the relevant DHS Component aimed at addressing any civil rights or civil liberties concerns identified as part of its investigation.
- DHS Advisory Committee Final Report on Family Residential Centers - September 30, 2016.
Legislative and Administrative Advocacy
- The Case Management Pilot Program: A Humane, Effective Alternative to Immigration Detention - August 15, 2024
- Senators Send Letter Urging Appropriators to Include Funding for ATD - May 15, 2024
- AILA Statement to Senate on ICE's Use of Solitary Confinement - April 16, 2024
- AILA Sends Letter to White House Opposing Family Detention – March 13, 2023
- AILA and Partners Send Letter to White House Urging Closure of ICE Detention Sites - November 21, 2022
- Members of Congress Send Letter to DHS on Access to Counsel - November 3, 2022
- Over 100 House Democrats Send Letter to DHS to Halt Immigration Detention - March 10, 2022
Browse the Featured Issue: Immigration Detention and Alternatives to Detention collection
DHS OIG Report on the Release of Jean Jacques from ICE Custody
DHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) issued a report on the circumstances by which Jean Jacques, a Haitian national previously convicted of attempted murder and subject to a final order of removal, was released from ICE custody and killed another individual while on release.
Due Process Denied: Central Americans Seeking Asylum and Legal Protection in the United States
In this report, AILA makes recommendations to restore due process for the thousands of Central American children, families, and single adults who are seeking asylum and legal protection at our border from grave and life-threating violence that has plagued the Northern Triangle region.
AILA Details Necessary Steps to Guarantee Due Process to Refugees and Asylum Seekers
In a statement highlighting the release of AILA’s new Due Process Denied report, AILA President Victor Nieblas Pradis noted, “The response thus far from the Obama Administration to the refugee situation in Central America has been abysmal...We can, and must, do better than this.”
AILA Quicktake #168: Due Process Denied
AILA's Director of Advocacy Greg Chen shares details from AILA's report on the due process violations Central Americans are experiencing as they seek protection in the United States.
CA11 Outlines Approach for Determining When a Detained Criminal Noncitizen Must Receive a Bond Hearing
The court held that INA §236(c) contains an implicit temporal limitation against the unreasonably prolonged detention of criminal noncitizens without an individualized bond hearing, and outlined a way to determine when detention becomes unreasonably protracted. (Sopo v. Att'y Gen., 6/15/16)
DHS CRCL FY2015 Annual Report to Congress
DHS CRCL FY2015 Annual Report to Congress detailing CRCL’s priorities and activities in FY2015, including preventing terrorism and enhancing security, securing and managing U.S. borders, and enforcing and administering U.S. immigration laws.
Family Detention Takes Another Hit
I don't know about you, but some days it seems like family detention is a battle being fought on multiple fronts - the lawyerly equivalent of air, land, and sea. We have hundreds of pro bono attorneys and volunteers fighting nonstop to help families in the three facilities and helping families once
GAO Report Found Additional Actions Needed to Strengthen DHS Management of Short-Term Holding Facilities
GAO report recommending that DHS establish a process to assess time in custody data; issue guidance on complaint mechanisms; include a classification code in all complaint tracking systems related to DHS holding facilities; and develop a process for analyzing complaint trends.
AILA Talking Points on Family Detention
AILA members can use these Talking Points with media when asked about family detention, AILA’s efforts to end family detention, and the CARA Family Detention Pro Bono Project.
Federal Government Steps Up Efforts to Deport Central American Mothers and Children without Due Process
In this statement, CARA Family Detention Pro Bono Project Managing Attorney Katie Shepherd highlights one of the 16 families picked up by ICE in recent arrests and slated for removal; sadly this family was deported before having had a meaningful chance to make claims for protection.
Mothers and Children Detained in Violation of Court Order Plead for Freedom
Pleading for an end to their imprisonment, 69 mothers who have been detained with their children at the South Texas Family Residential Center, an immigration detention facility in Dilley, Texas, wrote a public letter to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
District Court Grants Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus and Orders Bond Hearing for Detainee
The court found that petitioner’s prolonged and continued detention (for more than three years and two months) without a bond hearing had become unreasonable under INA §236(c), and ordered that the petitioner receive a bond hearing within 30 days. (Chairez-Castrejon v. Bible, et al., 5/19/16)
AILA Quicktake #166: ICE Announces New Surge of Arrests
AILA's Director of Advocacy Greg Chen shares information regarding ICE's announcement that it would be conducting another surge of arrests aimed at families and unaccompanied minors across the nation and what AILA is doing.
Letter to ICE from 69 Mothers Detained in Dilley Pleading for Freedom
Pleading for an end to their imprisonment, 69 mothers who have been detained with their children at the South Texas Family Residential Center, an immigration detention facility in Dilley, Texas, wrote a public letter to Immigration and Customs Enforcement; letter is available in Spanish and English.
AILA Member Talking Points on the ICE Raids Targeting Central American Families
AILA members can use these Talking Points with media when asked about ICE raids targeting Central American families.
Outrage
“Apurar, cielos, pretendo, Por qué me tratáis así, qué delito cometí contra vosotros naciendo. Aunque si nací, ya entiendo qué delito he cometido; bastante causa ha tenido vuestra justicia y rigor, Pues el delito mayor del hombre es haber nacido.“ ~ by Pedro Calderón de la Barca Outrage is the
FOIA Results on Bond Practices
Bond-related documents from ERO and Libre by Nexus (private ankle monitoring/GPS devices) released in response to a FOIA. Special thanks to Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg.
TRAC Report Finds Number of Civil Immigration Lawsuits Filed Has Risen Steadily During Past Year
A TRAC report found that the government reported 235 new civil filings in the immigration category in April 2016, a 37.7 percent increase from one year ago. The data shows that civil immigration filings are up approximately 30 percent from levels reported five years ago, in April 2011.
Detained, Deceived, and Deported: Experiences of Recently Deported Central American Families
The American Immigration Council interviewed individuals who were deported (or whose partners were deported) and their accounts reveal the dangerous circumstances these women and their children faced upon return to their home countries, as well as serious problems in the deportation process.
CARA: Government Continues to Undermine Access to Counsel and Due Process for Children and Mothers Seeking Protection in the U.S.
The CARA Family Detention Pro Bono Project shared additional evidence that the federal government and private prison companies are failing to provide child care adequate to ensure access to counsel and meaningful representation as a Texas agency considers licensing the Dilley center.
AILA: Shameful Escalation of ICE Raids is Misdirected at Vulnerable Families and Engenders a Culture of Fear
Responding to confirmed reports that immigration authorities are planning another surge of arrests aimed at families and unaccompanied children across the nation, AILA President Victor Nieblas Pradis joined AILA Executive Director Benjamin Johnson in condemning the raids.
Recognize these Mothers’ Sacrifices on Mother’s Day
From Day One of the Obama Administration's efforts to expand family detention, children have been the hardest hit. In Artesia, Berks, Dilley, and Karnes, these vulnerable asylum seekers are the ones who suffer the most when fleeing danger and coming to the U.S. seeking lawful protection for their sa
Anything I Can Do, You Can Do Better… in Dilley!
Sunday is Mother's Day in the U.S. and having just met some of the most incredible mothers I have ever encountered, I wanted to share that experience. In Dilley, TX, I met countless mothers who risked their lives to come to the U.S. for their children. Not for economic reasons, not for “a better li
AILA Quicktake #165: Texas Approves Karnes Childcare License
AILA member and head of the immigration clinic at the University of Texas Law School Denise Gilman shares news of the Texas Department of Family Services' decision to approve the Karnes City, Texas, application to be a licensed childcare facility and what AILA members can do.
H. Res. 708
On 4/27/16, Representatives Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), Keith Ellison (D-MN), and Judy Chu (D-CA) introduced a resolution to repeal specific provisions of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA) and the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA).