Giving Compass' Take:

· This article from TRAC Reports takes a look at the cause of the rising number of immigrants being held in detention by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

· How can you use this data to inform your giving to support immigrants?

· Check out this history of immigrant detention in the U.S..

According to data recently obtained by TRAC, the growth in detention by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) over the past four years has been fueled by a steady increase in the number of detainees with no criminal history. On the last day of April 2019, ICE held about 50,000 people in detention centers nationwide. Nearly 32,000 - or 64% - of detainees had no criminal conviction on record. This is up from 10,000 - or just under 40% of the nationwide total - four years prior. Over the same period, the total number of detainees with criminal convictions remained consistently between a low of 16,000 in March 2015 to a high of just over 19,000 in late 2017 and early 2018.

Figure 1 is based on TRAC's 14 "snapshots" of detention data, each one including case- by-case anonymized data of all individuals in ICE's custody on the last calendar day of the month. Figure 1 illustrates the remarkable consistency in the number of detainees with criminal convictions even as the total number of detainees fluctuates across a 4- year span of data. This suggests that the number of detainees with criminal convictions has its own inertia. Indeed, changes in presidential administration - as well as changes in ICE's own enforcement priorities that accompany each administration - appear to have little effect on the total number of detained immigrants with criminal convictions.

Read the full article about immigrants held in ICE detention at TRAC Reports.