ICE Detention Expands Dramatically; 70,000 Immigrants Now Jailed, Deaths Increase

Four more people have already died in detention in just the first two weeks of 2026.

By Amy Goodman and Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, Democracy Now!

A new report finds the number of people in ICE detention has nearly doubled in Trump’s first year back in office, driven by indiscriminate arrest policies that have locked up more and more people without criminal records, “an unprecedented situation for immigration detention.” We break down the numbers with Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, which published the report. Reichlin-Melnick explains that ICE’s annual budget has approximately quintupled, even as 2025 marked the agency’s deadliest year so far. Four more people have already died in detention in just the first two weeks of 2026. “Crucially, all of this has been slower than they wanted,” he adds. “Their hope was to have over 100,000 people in detention by today; they’ve hit 70,000.”

Transcript

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org.

We turn now to look at immigration detention expansion in Trump’s second term. That’s the focus of a new report released today by the American Immigration Council.

For more, we go to Washington, D.C., where we’re joined by the council’s senior fellow, Aaron Reichlin-Melnick.

Aaron, welcome back to Democracy Now! Lay out your findings on who’s being arrested, who’s being detained, where they’re being detained, and the size of these jails.

AARON REICHLIN–MELNICK: Yeah. What we are seeing and what we lay out in this report is that ICE detention has expanded dramatically in Trump’s first year back in office. It is — the entire system is 75% larger today than it was when he took office, with, as of this week, 70,000 people being held in detention on any given day, up from 40,000 when President Trump took office.

And that is driven by the new arrest policies, which are leading to the mass detention of people with no criminal record whatsoever. In fact, the single largest increase in ICE detention usage is among people who have had no interactions with the criminal justice system at all, who are being arrested in these brand-new sweeping policies, such as the use of roving patrols, worksite raids and the arrest of people at courthouses and immigration check-ins.

AMY GOODMAN: You note that changes in ICE’s arrest practices have led to a well over 2,000% increase in the number of people with no criminal records being held in ICE jails on any given day, Aaron.

AARON REICHLIN–MELNICK: That’s right. In fact, if you look at just the last few months, since the start of fiscal year 2026, so October 1st, 92% of the growth in ICE detention has been among people who have no interaction with the criminal justice system. The system, in general, expanded by about 5,000 beds over that period, and almost all of that increase came among people who have no criminal record, no prior convictions or pending criminal charges — an unprecedented situation for immigration detention.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about the unprecedented scale of federal funding for ICE in Trump’s new term? With the funding provided by what he calls, and many deride, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, ICE has enough money to operate upwards of 135,000 detention beds through the end of 2029. Congress voted to give ICE a total of $45 billion for ICE immigration detention through the end of the fiscal year 2029?

AARON REICHLIN–MELNICK: That’s right. So, when Trump took office, ICE’s budget was — for detention, was $3.4 billion. That is a staggering sum of money already, and it let ICE detain, on average, 41,500 people on any given day. But thanks to the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act, ICE now has an average annual budget of $15 billion over the next four years. By comparison, the entire Federal Bureau of Prisons, their budget is less than $9 billion. So ICE’s detention budget alone is larger than the entire budget of the federal prison system. And that puts ICE on track, by the end of Trump’s second term in office, to rival the federal prison system in sheer size.

AMY GOODMAN: So, does this rapid expansion of immigration detention also lead to more deaths? Let’s remember, most of the people in these jails have not committed any crime.

AARON REICHLIN–MELNICK: Yes. And we have already seen 2025 be the deadliest year on record for ICE detention, and four people have died in ICE detention just in the first two weeks of 2026, so we are on track for another deadlier year. And that’s because they are rushing people through the system and expanding too quickly. When they put a new tent camp online in Texas on Fort Bliss, that is set to hold 5,000 people, called Camp East Montana, in the first month that it was open, internal government watchdogs found dozens of violations, because they were throwing together the facilities so fast that they couldn’t have it fully prepared and safe for the people in it. And indeed, one of the four deaths this year did occur at that facility.

AMY GOODMAN: And can you also talk about, just overall, the overcrowding and the state detention methods under Trump’s second term, with jails like Alligator Alcatraz, which is entirely run by Florida? And also, can you talk about the targeting of people with DACA, with green cards, I mean, people who are legally here and working?

AARON REICHLIN–MELNICK: Yeah, so, one of the biggest things that we document in this report is changes in policies that have led to people being detained who would not have previously been detained, or would have been at least only temporarily detained and then released on bond. And that includes many people with sympathetic factors, people with green cards, people with DACA, who may have had a minor interaction with the criminal justice system, but not enough to justify long-term detention.

But this administration, on day one, saw President Trump issue an executive order mandating that ICE use detention to the maximum extent possible. And that means that they are not releasing people. And that led to severe overcrowding, as they arrest people more quickly than they can hold them in detention. That’s led to people being shuttled around the country from place to place, sometimes being sent to a dozen different detention facilities as ICE moves people around to free up beds in one place so that they can put another detainee there. And so, the result of that is a system where overcrowding is going on. The conditions are getting worse.

Add to that, the Trump administration worked with Florida to create a brand-new model of immigration detention, one run entirely by the state and barely supervised whatsoever by the federal government. This is the infamous so-called Alligator Alcatraz, the Everglades detention camp where hundreds of people are held. And that tent camp in Florida is the model for Trump’s new expansion of ICE detention, with Camp East Montana on Fort Bliss, 5,000 people to be detained there, and they are looking at more military bases to hold people, and even potentially looking at warehouses, converting them into facilities to hold maybe upwards of 10,000 people at a single place.

But crucially, all of this has been slower than they wanted. Their hope was to have over 100,000 people in detention by today; they’ve hit 70,000. The number keeps going up, but they have not yet been able to fully expand to the extent that they want. And I think that’s a good thing, because the situation is going to get worse.

AMY GOODMAN: Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, thanks so much for being with us, senior fellow at the American Immigration Council. We’ll link to your new report, out today, “Immigration Detention Expansion in Trump’s Second Term.”

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