Immigration detention statistics show how many people enter ICE custody, who is represented in the detained population, how people reach detention, and how the system is staffed and inspected. The figures below cover fiscal years 2021 through 2024, with some population snapshots dated September or December 2024. They describe different measures—initial book-ins, average daily populations, point-in-time counts, detainers, and inspections—so they should not be treated as interchangeable totals.
Table of contents
- ICE detention volume and final-order status
- Countries represented in the detained population
- Custody pathways and length of stay
- Criminal-history and immigration-detainer measures
- Health-care scale in ICE custody
- Detention capacity and facility oversight
ICE detention volume and final-order status
ICE’s initial book-in counts varied substantially by fiscal year and by whether the person had a final order of removal. An initial book-in is a custody-entry measure, not a count of everyone detained at one time. The FY 2024 ICE Annual Report reports these figures:
| Fiscal year | Without a final order | With a final order |
|---|---|---|
| FY 2021 | 159,982 | 51,468 |
| FY 2022 | 246,167 | 65,411 |
| FY 2023 | 165,126 | 108,094 |
| FY 2024 | 114,377 | 163,536 |
The pattern changed over the period. In FY 2021, ICE recorded 159,982 initial book-ins without a final order of removal and 51,468 with a final order. In FY 2022, the corresponding counts were 246,167 and 65,411. In FY 2023, ICE recorded 165,126 without a final order and 108,094 with one. By FY 2024, the count without a final order was 114,377, while the count with a final order reached 163,536.
The end-of-year custody population was much smaller than the annual number of initial book-ins because the measures cover different things. The ERO custody population rose from 36,845 at the end of FY 2023 to 37,684 at the end of FY 2024. On September 30, 2024, 13,193 detained noncitizens had final orders of removal and 24,491 did not. Those end-of-year figures are snapshots, not annual admissions.
Countries represented in the detained population
The September 30, 2024 snapshot in the FY 2024 ICE Annual Report identifies citizenship countries among currently detained noncitizens. Mexico was the citizenship country for 5,089 people. Honduras accounted for 2,957, Guatemala for 2,713, and India for 2,647.
Other reported country counts were 1,958 for El Salvador, 1,834 for Colombia, 1,629 for the Dominican Republic, 1,470 for Venezuela, 1,432 for Ecuador, and 1,319 for Russia. These are counts from the September 30, 2024 detained-population snapshot. They are not estimates of the broader immigrant population, and they do not represent all people who entered ICE custody during FY 2024.
The country figures also illustrate why a single nationality statistic can be misleading. The listed countries account for different-sized groups within a particular custody snapshot, while the total detained population changes as people are booked in, released, transferred, or removed. A point-in-time country count therefore answers “who was represented on that date?” rather than “how many people from that country were detained during the year?”
Custody pathways and length of stay
The arresting agency was another important distinction in FY 2023 and FY 2024. In FY 2023, CBP was the arresting agency for 26,878 currently detained noncitizens, compared with 9,967 for ICE. In FY 2024, the corresponding counts were 24,051 for CBP and 13,633 for ICE.
The annual report also gives average daily populations attributed to those arresting agencies. The average daily population attributed to CBP arrests was 16,626 in FY 2023 and 20,115 in FY 2024. For ICE arrests, the average daily population was 9,377 in FY 2023 and 12,232 in FY 2024. These are averages over the fiscal year, not end-of-year snapshots.
| Measure | FY 2023 | FY 2024 |
|---|---|---|
| Currently detained; CBP arresting agency | 26,878 | 24,051 |
| Currently detained; ICE arresting agency | 9,967 | 13,633 |
| Average daily population attributed to CBP arrests | 16,626 | 20,115 |
| Average daily population attributed to ICE arrests | 9,377 | 12,232 |
For FY 2023, the average length of stay for people arrested by ICE was 33.3 days. The average length of stay for people arrested by CBP was 67.6 days. The two measures should be read in their stated categories: the reported averages do not establish a single length of stay for every person in ICE custody, and the dataset does not provide a FY 2024 average length of stay.
Criminal-history and immigration-detainer measures
ERO issued 125,358 immigration detainers for noncitizens with criminal histories in FY 2023 and 149,764 in FY 2024, according to the FY 2024 ICE Annual Report. ICE reported that the FY 2024 count was 19.5% higher than the FY 2023 count. A detainer count measures detainers issued; it is not the same as a count of detained people, convictions, or removals.
The FY 2024 detainer figures included several offense categories. They covered 80,854 assault convictions or charges, 21,379 sexual-assault and sex-offense convictions or charges, 19,409 weapons-offense convictions or charges, and 19,248 burglary convictions or charges. They also covered 7,904 robbery convictions or charges, 4,541 kidnapping convictions or charges, and 4,085 homicide convictions or charges.
Because the categories are described as convictions or charges, the figures should not be read as conviction-only counts. The available data also do not establish that each category is mutually exclusive or that the offense figures add up to the total detainer count. They are reported measures associated with FY 2024 detainers for noncitizens with criminal histories.
Health-care scale in ICE custody
The FY 2024 ICE Annual Report reports both staffing and service-volume measures for the ICE Health Service Corps. The corps had approximately 1,750 authorized positions in FY 2024, and its operating budget approached $421.5 million. It provided direct care to more than 138,000 noncitizens across 18 ICE Health Service Corps-staffed facilities and recorded more than 1.3 million health-care visits.
The report also describes timing for initial care. People in ERO custody received health-care screenings within 12 hours of arrival in FY 2024. They completed medical assessments within 14 days of admission. These are reported service standards or timing measures; they do not state that every individual received identical treatment or that all medical needs were resolved within those periods.
ICE Health Service Corps responsibilities extended beyond facilities staffed directly by the corps. In FY 2024, it oversaw health-standard compliance for 186,900 noncitizens in non-IHSC-staffed facilities. Those facilities represented 129 facilities and more than 45,500 beds. The direct-care counts and the compliance-oversight counts describe different groups and should not be combined as one patient total.
Detention capacity and facility oversight
The Government Accountability Office’s report Immigration Detention: DHS Should Define Goals and Measures to Assess Facility Inspection Programs states that ICE had an average daily population of more than 37,000 detained noncitizens in FY 2024. ICE’s FY 2024 appropriation for the detention system was $3.4 billion, supporting a detention bed level of 41,500. ICE reported detaining noncitizens in more than 100 detention facilities in December 2024.
Inspection results varied by inspecting organization and by the standard being assessed. The Office of Detention Oversight rated facilities acceptable or above in 238 of 241 inspections from FY 2022 through FY 2024. The ICE Health Service Corps found compliance with applicable detention standards in 46 of 47 inspections over the same period.
The Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman found noncompliance with the specific complaint-related standard at 31 of the 33 facilities it inspected from FY 2022 through FY 2024. That result concerns the particular complaint-related standard identified in the GAO report; it is not a rating of every detention condition at those facilities.
The Department of Homeland Security’s Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties conducted 14 onsite investigations of ICE detention facilities in FY 2024. ICE’s Office of Professional Responsibility reported 194 detention-facility compliance inspections and 21 Prison Rape Elimination Act audits in FY 2024, according to the FY 2024 ICE Annual Report.
Taken together, these figures describe the scale of detention and the number of oversight activities, but they use different time windows, organizations, and standards. An inspection count is not itself a finding of compliance, and a favorable rating in one inspection program does not resolve the separate complaint-related result reported by another office. The measurement period and the responsible organization matter when interpreting immigration detention statistics.