92% of ICE Detention Growth in FY 2026 Driven by Immigrants with No Criminal Convictions
ICE published new detention data today that brings the current population to a record-high of 68,990. Get the full breakdown below. Plus: ICE records first detention death of 2026.
The latest ICE detention data shows that on January 7, 2026, 68,990 people were held in 212 immigrant detention facilities across the country. This number does not include people detained in short-term facilities along the border, in ICE field offices, courtrooms, or other locations where ICE has reportedly held people for immigration purposes. This number is marginally higher than the previous high of 68,442 on December 13.
The growth in the detained population of people arrested by ICE since the end of the fiscal year in September has come almost exclusively from the growth in numbers of people detained with no criminal charges or convictions. The graph below compares the total number of people in detention on two dates: September 21, 2025 and January 7, 2026. These numbers only include people in detention as a result of an ICE arrest, thus reflecting what is typically referred to as “interior enforcement.” ICE detention includes people arrested by CBP at or near the border, but these cases, by definition, tend to have no U.S. criminal history.
ICE officially classifies these cases as “Other Immigration Violators”. In the public domain, these cases may also be referred to as non-criminal detainees. ICE has claimed publicly that these cases may include people that represent significant safety threats, but the agency has failed, to date, to provide data to support these claims beyond the occasional anecdotal narratives.
As the data shows, the overall single-day detention numbers increased a total of 11,296. Non-criminal detainees represent 72 percent of this growth, 20 percent is attributed to people with, at most, pending criminal charges, and just 8 percent of the growth in ICE detention this fiscal year can be attributed to immigrants with criminal convictions. As many other reports have noted, a small percentage of these convictions represent serious violent crimes or public safety threats. See my previous post from the Chicago lawsuit or David Bier’s detailed post here.
If you’ve been following my Substack posts about immigrant detention, you know I tend to update the same charts every two weeks for consistency. But I’m adding a new table this year that I think helps quantify the change in criminal category over time. The table below shows percent changes, positive or negative in the overall number of people held in detention, as well as the running total for the percent increase since the start of the Trump administration.
As you can see, there are periods of tremendous surges in the growth of non-criminal detainees, and, except for the beginning of last February, no corresponding surge in the detention of people with criminal convictions. The Trump administration continues to represent aggressive immigration enforcement practices across the country as necessary to address threats to national security and public safety. The available data so far do not support these claims. If ICE has additional data that would illuminate its claims, the agency is free to make this data available to the public under proactive disclosure laws and I will be more than happy to update my findings.
As a matter of total numbers, the following graph reinforces the findings above by showing an increase in the total numbers of people in detention arrested by ICE. The total number of immigrants detained by ICE with criminal convictions has not increased at all since August, and has not increased more than marginally since March 2025. In fact, since mid-December, the total number of detained people with convictions has actually decreased and may soon be overtaken by people with only pending criminal charges.
The total detained population—CBP and ICE enforcement both included—is shown below, with nearly half (48 percent) of all people held in detention lacking a criminal history on record.
The graph below shows the total ICE arrests by month since the start of FY 2025. I included a projection for January based on the first seven days of the month, but there’s no way this is realistic. I almost didn’t include it all, but I thought it was worth noting that numbers tend to be low over the holidays at the end of December and beginning of January. To be more specific, ICE arrested, on average, 1,220 people per day for the month of December, but just 315 people per day for the first week of January. That will likely increase.
The overall number of people on alternatives to detention (ATD) continues to hold remarkably steady with a current total of 180,658 people on electronic monitoring. The trend in ICE’s Alternatives to Detention enrollment continues, with ICE shuffling people off the smartphone tracking app known as SmartLINK and ramping up the number of people on the more punitive GPS ankle monitors. I believe GPS ankle monitor usage is now at record highs for ICE.
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Detention Can Be Deadly
December 2025 capped off an already deadly year with a record number of detention deaths in a single month. Learn more about what’s going wrong in detention centers in my previous post: “ICE’s Deadly December: Record-Setting Detained Population and Detention Deaths.”
Barely a week into 2026, ICE has already reported its first detention death, which is, sadly, being overshadowed at the moment by the killing of Renee Nicole Good. Read Andrew Free’s post for #DetentionKills to get that story.
Update on 01/10/2026 12:09 PM. This post was featured on All In With Chris Hayes on January 9, 2026.
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So, we can cut a lot of wasteful government spending, preserve the peace, and protect everyone from criminals by eliminating 92% of the ICE detention population, 92 % of the detention centers, and 92% of the ICE budget. Reasonable demands to our Congressional representatives for the upcoming budget bill.
I would really greatly appreciate it if you could link the actual database where the data is coming from for the naysayers. Additionally, do you mean FY 2025 in the title? We’re only a week into 2026 so that value doesn’t mean too much yet. Thank you!!!