Article

Infographic: How Long Are People in Detention?

Immigrants that are fighting their deportation cases are detained the longest.

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A congressional mandate requires that Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, maintain bed space to detain 34,000 immigrants per day at an annual cost of more than $2 billion. This arbitrary number is unrelated to the agency’s actual bed-space needs, wasting taxpayer dollars and placing immigrants at risk of abuse and mistreatment in detention facilities.While immigrants spend one month in detention on average, those fighting deportation cases are detained for more than three times as long, sometimes even for years.

DetentionBedQuota3

Sharita Gruberg is a Policy Analyst for LGBT Progress at the Center for American Progress.

The positions of American Progress, and our policy experts, are independent, and the findings and conclusions presented are those of American Progress alone. A full list of supporters is available here. American Progress would like to acknowledge the many generous supporters who make our work possible.

Authors

Sharita Gruberg

Former Vice President, LGBTQI+ Research and Communications Project

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