Scoop: ICE detention numbers slip
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Photo illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Photos: Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto and Carlos Moreno/Anadolu via Getty Images
ICE has empty detention bed space and the average daily number of detainees has slid to 58,000, Axios has learned from two sources familiar with the data.
Why it matters: ICE went on a $38 billion buying spree to rapidly expand the number of available beds. But after its detention population more than doubled in President Trump's first year in office, the numbers have gone in the other direction.
- Trump backed off aggressive city-wide enforcement strategies following the killing of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis, and the detention population — and therefore the number of arrests — dipped.
- Agency data shows ICE reached a peak of nearly 72,000 migrants in custody in January.
- ICE hasn't released official detention statistics since early April, when the detention population was just more than 60,000 people.
What they're saying: "ICE actually has more capacity right now than they have people in custody," Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott said at an event this week.
- Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin echoed Scott's statement at a press conference two days later, speaking about ICE's only family detention center, saying "the detention center is not even close to being at capacity."
- Mullin also said because there's empty space in the family detention center, in Dilley, Texas, there is also no need to expand detention space suitable to house children. During the presidential transition, this was a top priority.
Friction point: This is a major departure from the start of Trump's second term, when detention space was a major limitation on the number of people ICE could arrest.
- A lack of detention space meant migrants were being held in office buildings, court houses and other federal building space for days and sometimes weeks in unsuitable spaces for long-term stays, according to multiple lawsuits.
- Some migrants were being released last winter because of lack of ICE bed space, as Axios previously reported.
- Border czar Tom Homan even pleaded with sheriffs at a national law enforcement conference to let ICE rent their unused jail space, offering to lower detention standards to make quick cooperation possible.
Between the lines: Arrests, detentions and deportations are much higher than in President Biden's tenure. But they are falling short of the 3,000 daily arrest goal set by White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller.
