(NAME-MCE) Report Questions Whether ICE Is Capable of Meeting Its Immigration Detention Mandates

[Anselmo Villanueva]

The Migration Policy Institute (MPI)

September 10, 2009
Contact: Michelle Mittelstadt  202-266-1910
mmittelstadt at migrationpolicy.org

MPI Report Questions Whether ICE Is Capable of Meeting Its
Immigration Detention Mandates

WASHINGTON — The Migration Policy Institute (MPI) today issued a report
exploring whether U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is capable
of meeting its legal and case management responsibilities in light of its
use of information systems that may not be collecting all the data necessary
to meet legal, detention management and humanitarian standards.

A new report, Immigrant Detention: Can ICE Meet its Legal Imperatives and
Case Management Responsibilities?, analyzes select data for all 32,000
detainees held in ICE custody on one night in January 2009 and examines the
sufficiency of ICE's database and case tracking system. The question has
taken on new urgency in light of the ICE announcement in August that it
plans to revamp its detention system to reduce its reliance on local jails
and private prisons, address longstanding concerns related to conditions of
confinement and centralize management.

"ICE may well need more information on detainees than it currently collects,
particularly data that can inform and guide its legal and operational
decisions related to custody reviews, eligibility for release or parole,
placement in alternative-to-detention programs or even claims to US
citizenship," said MPI Vice President for Programs Donald Kerwin, a
co-author of the report. "This report provides a roadmap for meeting the
data needs essential for the new ICE detention initiative to succeed as it
attempts to move from a criminal incarceration model to a civil detention
system."

Some highlights of the report's analysis of the ICE data on detainees in the
system on January 25, 2009:

- Of the 32,000 immigrants in ICE's custody, 18,690 had pending removal
cases (in other words, they had not received final orders of removal).
- The average length of detention for the 18,690 pre-removal order detainees
was 81 days. Seventy-four percent had been detained for less than 90 days,
13 percent for between 90 days and six months, 10 percent for between six
months and one year, and 3 percent for more than one year.
- A high percentage of ICE detainees (58 percent) do not have criminal
records, even though mandatory detention laws largely apply to criminal
aliens; ICE includes persons who have committed immigration-related offenses
in its criminal alien nomenclature, and ICE's expanding Secure Communities
program places large numbers of arrested and imprisoned noncitizens into
removal proceedings.
- ICE held detainees in 286 facilities, which were concentrated in southern
and U.S.-Mexico border states; 68 percent of the total were held in
California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Alabama,
Georgia and Florida.
- Nearly 70 percent of detainees were held in state and local prisons
pursuant to Intergovernmental Service Agreements, 17 percent in contract
detention facilities, 10 percent in service processing centers, 2 percent in
federal prisons and 3 percent in Office of Refugee Resettlement facilities,
medical centers, shelters, and other alternative or "soft" detention
settings.

"The detention data highlight the need for ICE information systems that can
meet the substantial challenges of a sprawling detention system, comprised
of hundreds of facilities large and small, public and private, federal and
local, that holds a highly diverse population, including men and women,
criminal and noncriminal detainees, the medically fragile and others," said
MPI Data/Statistical Analyst Serena Yi-Ying Lin, who co-authored the report.

The report makes a range of recommendations, among them that ICE:

- Undertake an intensive analysis of its information systems, particularly
its detention database and case tracking system, in light of its legal
mandates, management imperatives and detention transformation initiative.
- Comprehensively review its contracts for detention space, with the goal of
maximizing the cost savings realized by expanding alternative-to-detention
programs.
- Capture information that would allow the agency to adhere to its national
standards, including information on when and how the agency has complied
with the standards. For standards related to detainee transfers, ICE should
record information on the U.S. residence of detainees, their family members
and legal counsel.
- Collect all information related to detainee medical needs, interventions,
treatment and causes of death.

Said Kerwin: "Many government and non-government reports have criticized ICE
for failing to comply with its legal mandates and management imperatives.
This report places these criticisms in a new light by asking whether ICE can
fully comply with the law, effectively manage its sprawling detention system
and create a system better suited to civil detainees."

The report is available at:
http://www.migrationpolicy.org/pubs/detentionreport Sept1009.pdf.

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The Migration Policy Institute is an independent, non-partisan, non-profit
think tank in Washington, D.C. dedicated to analysis of the movement of
people worldwide. MPI provides analysis, development and evaluation of
migration and refugee policies at the local, national and international
levels.