Six out of ten undocumented immigrants currently detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have no criminal record, according to an analysis by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University.
In all, ICE detention centers held 38,863 individuals as of November 3rd, 23,588 of whom lacked any criminal background whatsoever, representing 60.7% of the detained population, Among those detainees with criminal records, "many have only minor offenses, including traffic violations," TRAC noted.
The study also revealed other insights about ICE facilities including the fact that the number of detainees held by ICE has been rising in recent months. October saw an increase of nearly 1,500 individuals compared to September.
Other insights included that over half of all detainees are housed in facilities in three states: Texas (12,017), Louisiana (6,779), and California (2,957) and that the largest detention facility in the U.S., the Adams County Detention Center in Natchez, Mississippi, holds an average daily population of 2,067 individuals.
The number of detainees in ICE facilities is, however, about to increase exponentially as Trump is reportedly planning major expansions of detention centers as a crucial part of his mass deportation policy, a plan that would include doubling the current 41,000 ICE detention beds to house detained immigrants prior to deportation
The Trump transition team is also assessing reopening closed facilities where additional space in county jails might be available, and potential locations for new facilities. Locations under consideration include major cities with large immigrant populations, such as Los Angeles, Denver, Miami, and Chicago, as well as the northeastern metropolitan areas of New York City, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C.
Immigrant advocacy groups, however, are fighting back, urging current president Joe Biden to reduce the number of immigration detention centers run by ICE before Donald Trump assumes office, emphasizing the need to take action not to prevent harm to millions of people.
Through a letter, the group led by the nonprofit Detention Watch Network, also ask Biden to grant humanitarian parole to detained migrants, who were part of the "particularly vulnerable populations," which include people with physical or mental health conditions, who have been detained while awaiting their immigration court decisions.
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