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A new report finds ICE failed to count 203,350 individuals as part of its total detention population between 2019 and 2022 — nearly 42% of the total people detained.
The faulty and inaccurate data is the focus of the U.S. Government Accountability Office’s latest report, which found that Immigration and Custom Enforcement’s current reporting methodology did not account for the population of individuals who were initially held in certain temporary facilities before being moved to an ICE detention facility.
The GAO conducted the performance audit from September 2022 to July 2024.
Nearly 70% of individuals that ICE excluded from its reporting of “initial book-ins” were eventually detained in ICE facilities for days, weeks, months, and sometimes years. The agency also failed to define what it meant by initial book-ins or explain its methodology for determining initial book-ins.
The agency also failed to be transparent about whether its methodology for determining which detentions of individuals are included or excluded in its reporting has changed over time. In particular, officials told the GAO that ICE included tens of thousands of detentions of individuals where the first stay was at a specific CBP holding facility for 2019 through 2021. However, ICE decided not to include detentions of individuals held in that same holding facility in their calculation of initial book-ins for fiscal year 2022.
Although ICE’s reporting on detention data offers valuable information to the public, the agency’s reporting excludes information that could be crucial for keeping its implementation of its arrest and detention authority accountable.
Read the full report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office. The American Immigration Council also has an article about the report which you can read here.
