John,

At a time when politicians are calling for a massive expansion of immigration detention and deportation, it’s imperative to know who would be most impacted. But ICE’s data contains certain flaws that make tracking the impact of detention difficult. 

In a snapshot of this wider issue, a new interactive report from the American Immigration Council looks at the Torrance County Detention Facility in New Mexico, where ICE classified 86% of individuals in custody as white. But there’s a problem with the agency’s data on racial and ethnic minorities.

In fact, at this detention center, ICE categorized all people from Yemen, Iran, Mauritania, Turkey, Syria, Peru, Mali and other non-European countries as racially white.

ICE’s broad use of “white” as a racial classification, and other flaws in the data, make it difficult to know the full extent of any disparities among migrants of color, including ICE’s treatment of them and the length of time they spend in detention. However, when you dig deeper and look at the same data aggregated by geographic location, racial disparities become more discernable. 

The Council requested this data through a Freedom of Information Act request in 2021. We’re now releasing our analysis in a new interactive report. 

The report’s data also shows:

• ICE repeatedly repopulated the detention facility after several warning flags, including failed oversight investigations, a lawsuit, and COVID-19 outbreaks.
   
• Despite well-documented attorney access issues at Torrance, ICE continued to transfer Haitians and other vulnerable populations into the facility. 

As politicians call for mass deportation, we need to know how ICE facilities operate and who is most impacted by the agency’s mistreatment. 

Analysis like this is not possible without your support. Consider making a gift to the American Immigration Council today.

​Sincerely,

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