As of August 24, 2025 how many human beings were in I.C.E. (U.S. Immigration Customs Enforcement) custody?
Critical Analysis
Find answers to the following questions using the visual above, any links below, your big brain, and your knowledge of American government and politics:
I.C.E.'s total detained population has now reached its highest point in history. As of August 24, 2025 approximately how many human beings were in I.C.E. (U.S. Immigration Customs Enforcement) custody?
Describe the trend in the number of human beings in ICE custody since 2020?
If the trends of the past decade continue, how many people would you expect to see in ICE custody by this time next year?
President Biden was in office from January 2021- January 2025. How does the party in control of the executive branch impact the number of people in ICE custody?
The Trump administration, aiming to deport 1 million undocumented immigrants a year, has directed ICE to conduct immigration raids throughout the country. In some states, like Nevada, arrests have jumped 300%. Taxpayer dollars are used to fund ICE operations. ICE spent, on average, $187.48 for each adult, per bed, each day in the 2023 fiscal year, according to documents from ICE. Those “per bed” costs also include the physical infrastructure that detainees stay in and personnel costs. Meanwhile, the costs of actually removing immigrants will cost billions more. Legal processing, which entails an administrative proceeding in front of an immigration judge, cost the Executive Office for Immigration Review (the agency that oversees the immigration system) an estimated $1,720 per case in 2023, according to the American Immigration Council. And the cost of physically transporting the undocumented immigrant population, which consists of about 13.3 million people, back to their home countries, would amount to $24.1 billion, according to the AIC. That’s about $1,812 per person. In early summer the daily population throughout ICE’s detention center network stood at 36,804 adults, which amounted to $6.9 million a day. ICE has ramped up the number of people it’s detained this year, which means that overall costs will almost certainly be higher this year. What is the approximate cost of housing 61,222 human beings?
The label “unauthorized immigrants” captures a complex array of statuses, including immigrants who entered the U.S. legally. While the label is not perfect, it groups together immigrants living in the country with impermanent, precarious statuses. According to a recent Pew Research report there are now over 14 million unauthorized immigrants. In your opinion, how many of those unauthorized immigrants should be removed?
While the total number of official facilities used by ICE currently stands at 186, these numbers still do not include many places that ICE does not report on, including temporary holding facilities in field offices and courts, Alligator Alcatraz (which is currently being shut down), or people in US Marshal custody. It does include the new and highly-controversial Fort Bliss detention site near El Paso (officially named “ERO EL PASO CAMP EAST MONTANA” in the data)1, which previously served as the site of Japanese internment in the 1940s. My state is now converting private prisons to be used to house ICE detainees. Do you know if there are any ICE detention facilities in your state?
The ICE budget has seen a massive increase due to recent legislation (Big Beautiful Bill), with a $75 billion allocation over four years, averaging $18.7 billion annually, including $10 billion already appropriated for fiscal year 2025. This legislation significantly increases funding for detention facilities, enforcement operations, and hiring new ICE officers. A large portion of the new funding, around $45 billion over four years, is specifically for increasing immigration detention capacity to potentially hold over 100,000 people annually. Some people refer to this as the deportation-industrial complex (ask your teacher what that means). ICE funding now significantly outpaces other federal law enforcement agencies, with estimates showing its total budget exceeding the FBI, DEA, ATF, US Marshals, and Bureau of Prisons combined, and more than the entire federal prison system. This unprecedented increase in funding is expected to lead to a rapid expansion of deportation and detention capacity, dwarfing prior budgets and making it the highest-funded law enforcement agency in U.S. history. If you were in charge of the budget how would you fund ICE relative to the FBI, DEA, ATF, US Marshals, and Bureau of Prisons.
Many Americans want dangerous criminal immigrants removed from our country. According to the visual below* what portion of the people detained by ICE are convicted criminals?
In a 6–3 decision The Supreme Court recently ruled that ICE can racially profile, meaning that federal agents can stop people in LA based on race, language, job or location amid Trump’s immigration crackdown. Immigration advocates warned that the supreme court has “effectively legalized racial profiling”, granting federal agents the power to stop people in Los Angeles simply for speaking Spanish or appearing Latino – and opening the door, they say, to a broader unraveling of civil rights protections nationwide. on Monday, the court’s conservative majority lifted restrictions on “roving” immigration patrols across the LA area after a lower court found that federal agents were indiscriminately targeting people on the basis of race, language, employment or location. The high court’s ruling alarmed civil liberties advocates and rattled immigrant communities in a county where one in three residents is foreign-born, and where the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement has already seen armed and masked federal agents detain residents, including US citizens, near bus stops, construction sites, churches, and other public spaces with little explanation or due process. How do you think the legality of racial profiling will impact your community and our nation?
Write and Discuss
Take ten minutes to write about the question at the top of the page and then discuss with your classmates.
Act on your Learning
Contact your U.S. House Representative and let them know what you think of ICE funding.
Get Creative
Using information from the lesson create an ad recruiting ICE agents.
Learn More*
Check out Austin Kocher’s fantabulous graphics about immigration in the U.S.
