Texas is holding more immigrant detainees than any other state
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No state is holding more immigrant detainees than Texas, and many are in facilities near Houston, according to newly released federal data.
Why it matters: The large number of detention centers in Texas — which has already taken a hard-line approach to illegal immigration — could play a major role in President Trump's plans for mass deportations.
The big picture: The data sheds light on the housing arrangements federal officials have made for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainees at a time when federal immigration centers are at near capacity — and the Trump administration is pushing for dramatically more arrests.
Zoom in: An ICE-contracted detention facility near Bush Intercontinental Airport has 833 detainees per day, per the data. The Polk Detention Facility in Livingston has 802.
- Two ICE centers in Conroe — the Montgomery County ICE Processing Center (1,228) and Joe Corley Processing Center (813) — combine for more than 2,000 detainees per day.
Zoom out: The South Texas ICE Processing Center in Pearsall, about 55 miles southwest of San Antonio, has the second-most detainees (1,666 a day) nationwide, according to data collected Feb. 18 (the latest available) by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) and reviewed by Axios.
- The Adams County Detention Center in Natchez, Mississippi, is holding the most detainees, averaging 2,148 a day.
Between the lines: TRAC said the ICE detention statistics update has missing and incorrect data. It did not report the number of detainees at the U.S. naval facility at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
The intrigue: Louisiana has the highest rate of detainees (150.3 per 100,000 state residents), followed by Mississippi (73.5), New Mexico (63.9), Texas (38.9) and Arizona (30.2).
- But Texas leads the way in both the number of facilities (21) and detainees (12,186) nationwide. Louisiana, the state with the second-largest detainee population, has 6,912 people housed across nine ICE facilities.
Overall, ICE was holding 43,759 people in detention at the various locations as of Feb. 23.
- More than 52% of those have no criminal record, and many more have committed minor offenses such as traffic violations, TRAC found.
The bottom line: Holding immigrants in detention is by far the largest cost of the deportation process.