Immigrant detentions in N.J. and Pa. rise as more people without criminal records are held

The number of people detained in ICE custody in New Jersey and Pennsylvania was up about 68% in July compared with figures at the start of President Donald Trump’s administration, recently released government data show.

At the same time, the proportion of detainees U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement classifies as “non-criminal” has risen by more than 50% since mid-January (ICE did not respond to a question seeking a precise definition of that term). The increase in those cases, in which people are charged with immigration offenses, such as entering the country illegally or overstaying a visa, accounts for the entire growth in the region’s detained population. There are currently seven active facilities in the region — five in Pennsylvania and two in New Jersey.

ICE releases data on detentions roughly every other week, as required by Congress.

The data do not include the number of people detained at a given facility on any particular date. Rather, ICE reports the average daily population (ADP) for each facility since the start of the federal fiscal year on Oct. 1. This practice has the effect of obscuring recent changes in a given facility’s detained population.

However, such changes can be estimated by comparing changes in a facility’s ADP between two reporting dates, a methodology immigration researchers Adam Sawyer and Austin Kocher recently developed. Sawyer is a founder of an academic data consulting firm and a former research associate at the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), a data-gathering and research organization at Syracuse University. Kocher is a professor at Syracuse University and a researcher at TRAC.

Adopting this method reveals a striking rise in the number of people and a change in the makeup of the population ICE has been processing through its detention facilities in recent months.

ICE was holding about 1,700 people across four facilities on the eve of Trump’s inauguration: Elizabeth Contract Detention Facility in New Jersey, and the Clinton County Correctional Facility, Pike County Jail, and Moshannon Valley Processing Center in Pennsylvania.

As of the reporting period ending July 21, ICE was using the seven facilities across the two states to detain about 2,850 individuals suspected of immigration violations.

Brennan Gian-Grasso, a founding partner of Philadelphia’s Gian-Grasso & Tomczak Immigration Law Group, has seen the change in his own practice.

“I do removal defense, and I have a pretty large detained practice whether I like it or not these days,” Gian-Grasso said.

The former head of the Philadelphia chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association pointed to two big changes he has observed in the behavior of local ICE agents.

“One, they’ve started bringing in people who have been here for a long time, checking in with ICE, but who might have an old outstanding removal order. They’re taking those people quite frequently,” Gian-Grasso said.

“Second, collateral arrests are way up. They’re looking for a guy who might have an outstanding warrant. They go to a worksite, there’s six other guys there, all of them get taken because there’s a priority on numbers right now,” Gian-Grasso said. “That’s no secret.”

Spokespeople for ICE’s Newark and Philadelphia field offices did not respond to emails seeking comment on the increase in detentions or why a significantly larger share of the detained population is now classified as non-criminal as compared with six months ago.

The increase in detentions dovetails with a marked ramp-up in arrests after White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, a top Trump adviser on immigration, reportedly demanded in May that ICE meet a quota of 3,000 arrests a day.

It also follows the expansion of the number of facilities holding immigrants. The 1,000-bed Delaney Hall immigration detention center in Newark began housing migrants on May 1. By early June, the facility held about 760 people, though the number fell to about 550 people in July.

Recent polling has shown falling support for Trump’s aggressive deportation agenda. A CNN poll released last month, for example, showed 55% of Americans surveyed said the president has “gone too far” when it comes to deporting “immigrants living in the U.S. illegally,” up 10 points since February. Meanwhile, a Gallup poll released that same month showed that only 30% of Americans want immigration decreased, down from 55% a year ago.

As the number of people ICE is holding in detention has increased, the proportion of those ICE classifies as non-criminal has shot up.

When previously asked for comment about an increase in arrests of those accused of violating only immigration laws, a spokesperson for ICE told The Inquirer that “being in the U.S. illegally is in fact a crime.”

ICE classified about 47% of people in detention at facilities in New Jersey and Pennsylvania on the eve of Trump’s inauguration as non-criminal. That figure rose to about 66% in July.

In January, detention facilities in the two states held about 800 individuals with the non-criminal classification. That number skyrocketed by 135% by July.

That increase, to nearly 1,900 people, accounts for the entire increase in the average detained population for the region’s facilities.

Emma Tuohy, a partner at Philadelphia’s Landau, Hess, Simon, Choi & Doebley and the immediate past president of the national American Immigration Lawyers Association, said a recent change in mandatory detention and bond policy was responsible for the jump.

“I think the most alarming thing that we’re seeing right now is an extreme expansion of who is subject to mandatory detention,” Tuohy said.

Tuohy said a May 15 decision from the Board of Immigration Appeals, the body responsible for reviewing decisions made by immigration judges, had a large impact.

The decision had the effect of expanding the pool of people eligible for mandatory detention and eliminating their right to bond hearings.

The number of individuals classified as non-criminal detained in the region’s facilities had increased modestly since January before rising sharply in late May and June, following the board’s decision.

Having a client in detention often has a profound impact on a lawyer’s ability to provide effective representation, Gian-Grasso said.

“Detention really, really hurts a person trying to fight their case because it makes it far more difficult for me as an attorney to really represent them. … They can’t participate really fully in their own defense when they’re in immigration custody,” he said. Often, he said, clients in asylum cases need to provide documents that show the dangers they would face if returned to their home countries. That is difficult to do from inside a facility.

Beyond that, Tuohy said, detention can affect people’s mental health.

“Being indefinitely held in detention — in not great conditions, obviously — really impacts people’s mental health. And a lot of people are finding that some clients don’t want to fight their cases anymore,” she said. “They might have a good asylum case or some other form of relief and just want to give up because they don’t want to be detained anymore.”

Detainees and their advocates have criticized conditions at the region’s two largest detention facilities — Delaney Hall and the Moshannon Valley Processing Center northwest of State College, Pa.

Advocates said detainees at Delaney reported suffering from a lack of medical care and food, alternately freezing and boiling temperatures, and access to family and legal counsel.

Last year, the Department of Homeland Security’s Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties issued a memorandum laying out abuse allegations against Moshannon, including denial of appropriate medical care, due process violations, and inadequate access to translation services.