A Deep Dive Into ICE Detainments yields little information

Information about what happens to detainees who are taken by ICE is difficult to find. With the onslaught of alarming news from 17 days (and counting) of the federal government shutdown; to National Guard deployments to LA, DC, and Chicago; to tariffs, changing tariffs and threats of tariffs; publication of vile texts of young Republicans; catastrophic suffering in Gaza; Senators blocking release of the Epstein files; massive layoffs¹…, it’s difficult to even keep attention on ICE taking people off streets and try to follow their movement. As horrible as I imagine conditions are in ICE detention centers made to imprison people within this country, I find the thought of sending taken people away to prisons in other countries, such as El Salvador² or Sudan³, even more horrifying. On this No King’s Day, I take time to try to understand where our fellow humans have gone.

For starters, the Fifth Amendment says, “No person shall…be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law…” It relates to the Federal government. The Fourteenth Amendment requires that the states also provide due process before depriving “any person of life, liberty, or property.” The Constitution is clear in extending due process protections to any person, not exclusively to citizens of the United States. Arrest and detainment of immigrants, citizens or not, without due process is unconstitutional. 

Several cases have been brought to challenge practices of ICE⁴. The Constitution is open to some interpretation and the Supreme Court has the power of judicial review. For instance, while not a final decision, the Supreme Court is allowing ICE to continue profiling people to detain based on appearance, accent, or job location.⁵ Profiling has generally been considered unconstitutional since a federal court found the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk practices unconstitutional in 2013.⁶ With all of that said, given basic understanding of history, I believe we can agree that legal does not always mean right or just.

ICE, as authorized and encouraged by the current administration, is taking and detaining people without due process. It is difficult to be sure how many people have been arrested. This ICE Raid Tracker puts the number of arrests at almost 600,000. To put that in perspective, 600,000 is more than the population of Baltimore. I’ve been able to find several articles with statistics through June, but few more recent. Statista has a graph projecting how many people will be arrested by ICE in 2025 and they predict 260,000 for the whole year. That’s closer to the size of Chesapeake, Virginia. The ice.gov website only has data current through January of 2025.

Who are these people being arrested? Data seems consistent that about 72% of all people arrested and detained by ICE have no criminal record.⁷ This statistic contradicts Trump’s claim that they seek out “the worst of the worst.”⁸ Indeed, the war on immigrants is having a deleterious impact on our labor market, as immigrants contribute significantly and positively to our economy.⁹ Multiple sources confirm that over 170 U.S. citizens have also been detained by ICE.¹⁰ At least fifteen people have died in ICE custody.^10b

I struggle to find information about how many detainees have been deported to detention centers in other countries. While deportation flights are not new to U.S. policy, they’ve seen a sharp increase under the Trump administration. This CNN article of August, provides a lengthy explanation of the increase in flights and difficulties in tracking flights, and thus finding where people deported have been sent, “The number of ICE flights is skyrocketing — but the planes are harder than ever to track.” 

I’ve also sought to find out what happened to the detainees that went missing when "Alligator Alcatraz” closed down.¹¹ It is unclear to what extent people are still missing (i.e. If sent somewhere other than where they were reported to have gone, are they now where ICE says they are? Have families been able to find them?). In an article intended to fact check the original claim from the Miami Herald that 1800 people were missing, Snopes was not able to verify that each of those individuals was missing but that “...evidence exists from real cases that detainees apparently have gone missing for stretches of time, or are not where ICE said they were.”¹²

I’ve been researching and reading for several hours and have no deeper understanding than I had when I began. It is clear that ICE activities and the situation of detainees are not transparent. And all of this — all of this research with so little information — seems to entirely miss the mark. Or maybe underscores an important aspect of a troubling element  —  that we are largely in the dark about what is happening. 

I’ve watched maybe 100 videos, give or take, over the past several months of people being pushed to the ground, pulled off streets, bound, and thrown in SUVs. It feels as though these gun-carrying masked men descend in force, without identifying themselves or following any civil procedure, with the result and perhaps purpose of creating terror. I’m always psyched when citizens stand up and support. Some people are free because of friends and neighbors publicizing the situation and coming to the defense of targeted individuals. All of that — the reels and shorts and TikToks, have been more illuminating than the hours worth of articles I’ve poured through. But they don’t offer a systemic picture of what’s happening once people are in ICE custody and how people might get freedom; how people might find justice.

There is some light — the wonderful antics of protesters in Portland starting the whimsical, disarming trend of costumes, particularly the beloved frog; the leaders who have stood up to power to defend their people; the citizens and patriots that gathered peacefully to speak up for democracy and freedom. No Kings organizers report that almost 7 million people joined their protests yesterday. 

I don’t want to give this a Pollyanna conclusion. We can continue to reach out to politicians, work on campaigns, protest, ask questions, share information, and try to defend oppressed others. I have faith that America will become a better version of itself than what we are now. But it feels selfish not to acknowledge that all of these acts and aspirations may be of little comfort to individuals detained without rights in overcrowded detention facilities without knowing when, or if, they might go free. These acts may be of little comfort to families of incarcerated individuals, who may not know where their loved ones are, or when, or if, they may be reunited. I pray for them today and every day. 

For my part I’ll continue and encourage revolutionary acts such as honesty, taking notice, and creating art. And I’ll keep searching for answers.

Note on sources:

One can’t be a good activist without being informed. (And some of us can’t be informed without taking action.) I’ve paid for some news sources, but not all of us can comfortably make that choice. Also, sometimes we may only want to read one article from a news source and not plan to revisit it. In that case, you can type the web address into Archive.today to read the article. 

¹ Choi, Annette, “Tracking Trump’s overhaul of the Federal Workforce,” CNN, July 14, 2025 https://www.cnn.com/politics/tracking-federal-workforce-firings-dg

   Chapagain, Nikesh, “Trump Administration Lays Off Thousands Amid Shutdown Standoff,” The Morning News, October 11, 2025 https://themorningnews.com/news/2025/10/11/trump-administration-lays-off-thousands-amid-shutdown-standoff/n

² Aleman, Marcos and Garcia Cano, Regina, “What to know about El Salvador’s mega-prison after Trump sent hundreds of immigrants there,” AP, March 16, 2025 https://apnews.com/article/el-salvador-trump-prison-immigrants-4ab3fc3c0474efb308084604b61f8a37

³ Deppisch, Breanne, “South Sudan deportations have placed migrants, and ICE officials, in danger: new court filing,” FOX News, June 6, 2025 https://www.foxnews.com/politics/south-sudan-deportations-have-placed-migrants-ice-officials-danger-new-court-filing 

⁴ Factually, “Fact check: Have there been any high-profile lawsuits against ICE for discriminatory arrests?” October 15, 2025 https://factually.co/fact-checks/justice/ice-discriminatory-arrests-lawsuits-3b5093 

⁵ Savage, Charlie, “The Supreme Court Decision on ICE and Racial Profiling, Explained,” The New York Times, September 8, 2025 https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/08/us/politics/supreme-court-immigration-racial-profiling.html

   Ryan, Erika, et. al., “The Supreme Court clears the way for ICE agents to treat race as grounds for immigration stops,” NPR, September 13, 2025 https://www.npr.org/2025/09/13/nx-s1-5507125/the-supreme-court-clears-the-way-for-ice-agents-to-treat-race-as-grounds-for-immigration-stops 

⁶  Benz, Dorothee, “Landmark Decision: Judge Rules NYPD Stop and Frisk Practices Unconstitutional, Racially Discriminatory,” Center for Constitutional Rights, August 12, 2013 https://ccrjustice.org/home/press-center/press-releases/landmark-decision-judge-rules-nypd-stop-and-frisk-practices

⁷ TracImmigration, (data updated through September 21, 2025) https://tracreports.org/immigration/quickfacts/detention.html

   Visaverge,”A Comprehensive Analysis of ICE Arrest Data from Deportation Data Project,” June 28, 2025 https://www.visaverge.com/immigration/a-comprehensive-analysis-of-ice-arrest-data-from-deportation-data-project/

⁸ Goldin, Melissa, “Trump says he wants to deport ‘the worst of the worst.’ Government data tells another story,” AP, July 12, 2025 https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-trump-immigration-crime-ice-criminal-dangerous-violent-99557d9d68642004193a9f4b7668162e

⁹ Wiseman, Paul and Salomon, Gisela, “Trump’s immigration crackdown weighs heavy on the US labor market,” AP, October 18, 2025 https://apnews.com/article/immigration-crackdown-american-economy-e00e12257737680ba55c35c3bc25768f

¹⁰ Prager, Stephen, “More Than 170 US Citizens Have Been Held by Immigration Agents, Some Abused or Detained for Days: ProPublica,” October 17, 2025 https://www.commondreams.org/news/ice-detaining-us-citizens 

^10b Visaverge, “What’s Happening to People Detained by ICE: An Overview,” October 12, 2025 https://www.visaverge.com/news/whats-happening-to-people-detained-by-ice-an-overview/ 

¹¹ Wieder, Ben and Dasgupta, Shirsho, “Hundreds of Alligator Alcatraz detainees drop off the grid after leaving site,” Miami Herald, September 16, 2025 https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/immigration/article312042943.html 

¹² PerryCook, Taija, “Investigation found two-thirds of more than 1,800 detainees 'dropped off the grid' from 'Alligator Alcatraz'?” Snopes, September 25, 2025 https://www.snopes.com/news/2025/09/25/men-lost-from-alligator-alcatraz/