DHS Releases U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Declined Detainer Outcome Report

"The Department of Homeland Security today issued the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Declined Detainer Outcome Report required by President Donald J. Trump’s Executive Order, Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States, signed on January 25.  This report will be issued weekly to highlight jurisdictions that choose not to cooperate with ICE detainers or requests for notification, therefore potentially endangering Americans. ICE places detainers on aliens who have been arrested on local criminal charges or who are in local custody and for whom ICE possesses probable cause to believe that they are removable from the United States, so that ICE can take custody of the alien when he or she is released from local custody...."
Declined detainer outcome report

Q&A: DHS Implementation of the Executive Order on Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States

"On February 20, 2017, Secretary John Kelly signed a memorandum implementing the president’s Executive Order No. 13768 entitled “Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States,” issued on January 25, 2017. This document is designed to answer some frequently asked questions about how the Department will operationally implement the guidance provided by the president’s order.

Q1: Under what authority is DHS implementing this executive order?

A1: This executive order is being implemented under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), 8 U.S.C. 1101 et seq., and other immigration laws.

Q2: How is ICE conducting interior enforcement operations based on this executive order?

A2: Effective immediately, ICE will direct its personnel as well as its state and local partners through the 287(g) program to apply the enforcement priorities stated in Executive Order No. 13768. 

To that end, within 180 days, ICE will carry out a number of actions to implement the enforcement priorities stated in the executive order. Some of those actions include, but are not limited to, conducting targeted enforcement operations and allocating resources to work in jurisdictions with violent crime tied to gang activities...."
Public safety in interior of United states

New Data on 637 Detention Facilities Used by ICE in FY 2015

"The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention system depends on hundreds of jails, prisons, and other facilities largely owned as well as run by others — some by local government agencies and others by private, for-profit companies. Using beds in these facilities that are widely scattered across the country, ICE manages a large complex system with daily flows of individuals both into as well as out of ICE custody. In addition, an even larger number of individuals already in ICE custody are continually being transferred among these facilities.

A total of 325,209 individuals left ICE custody last year, while 39,082 were still detained at the end of FY 2015[1]. The reasons for which individuals were released from ICE custody varied markedly by detention facility. Nationally, the most common reason for leaving ICE custody was because a detainee was being deported; this reason was listed in 55 percent of recorded departures last year. The next largest group were detainees released on bond or on their personal recognizance while their cases were pending. Others were released because their cases had concluded and they had been found to have a lawful right to remain in the country.."

ICE Detention data

Assistance Program Helps Human Trafficking Victims
"Human trafficking is one of the most heinous crimes that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents investigate. Akin to modern-day slavery, victims are often forced into prostitution, involuntary labor and other forms of servitude. They are often hidden in plain sight, voiceless and scared.

ICE not only targets and apprehends human traffickers, but it also provides assistance to human trafficking victims through its Victim Assistance Program. That assistance comes in various forms like temporary immigration benefits, counseling, and more..."

CE announces major reforms to immigration detention system
"U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Assistant Secretary John Morton announced today that ICE is undertaking a major overhaul of the agency's immigration detention system.

"This change marks an important step in our ongoing efforts to enforce immigration laws smartly and effectively," said Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. "We are improving detention center management to prioritize health, safety and uniformity among our facilities while ensuring security, efficiency and fiscal responsibility."

"In the past five years, ICE has experienced considerable growth in immigration detention. This growth has presented significant challenges to a system that was not fundamentally designed to address ICE's specific detention needs," said Morton. "Implementing these reforms will improve medical care, custodial conditions, fiscal prudence and ICE's critical oversight of the immigration detention system. ICE remains committed to enforcing our nation's immigration and customs laws. We also reaffirm our commitment to ensuring the security, safety and well-being of individuals in our custody."

As the first of many concrete steps ICE is taking to implement comprehensive detention reform, the agency is creating an Office of Detention Policy and Planning (ODPP). The role of this office is to design and plan a civil detention system tailored to addresses ICE's needs. Dr. Schriro, who will report directly to the assistant secretary, will lead the ODPP with support from detention and health care experts..."

ICE returns more than 1,000 artifacts to Iraq
"Julie L. Myers, Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), completed the repatriation of 1,046 cultural antiquities to the Government of Iraq that were seized in four separate investigations dating back to 2001.

The items, which included terra cotta cones inscribed in Cuneiform text, a praying god figurine that was once imbedded in a Sumerian temple and coins bearing the likenesses of ancient emperors, are an illustration of the long and varied history of the country now known as Iraq. Remnants of ancient Cuneiform tablets, which were seized by the Customs Service in 2001, were recovered from beneath the ruins of the World Trade Center."