About Us

About Our Project:

The Detention Record Project is an independent archive documenting the human reality of ICE detention in the United States.

Facility data is sourced directly from ICE’s own published records, covering active facilities and some historical facilities included in ICE’s data since January 2026.

The archive lets you browse all ICE detention facilities, filter by location, type, and capacity, and view a facility’s statistics alongside any stories, documents, and records that have been submitted about it.

If you have a story, document, video, or other record to contribute, help us build the archive – every submission matters and is anonymous unless you request otherwise. Use the “Submit Story” button to get started.

Have feedback or questions? Use “ContactUs” in the header menu – we read everything!

Some links:

Data & Research

  • DetentionReports.com

    Facility-level reports built from ICE’s own published data, updated regularly. Searchable by state, city, and zip.

  • Deportation Data Project

    UCLA/UC Berkeley researchers who obtain ICE arrest, detention, and removal datasets through FOIA litigation and publish them publicly for journalists, researchers, and policymakers.

  • Prison Policy Initiative

    Nonpartisan think tank documenting mass incarceration in the U.S., including the role of local jails in ICE enforcement and the hidden scale of immigration detention.

  • ICE Tracking

    Investigative database from Evident Media tracking ICE detention incidents: deaths in custody, wrongful detentions, family separations, and worksite raids.

Substacks

  • Austin Kocher

    Syracuse University professor who publishes data-driven analysis of ICE detention numbers every two weeks. The most widely cited independent researcher in this space.

  • Project Salt Box

    Investigative reporting on the money and contracts behind immigration detention — DHS spending, warehouse conversions, and corporate players — grounded in public records and FOIA.

  • Tetsu’s Newsletter

    Deep analytical writing on the scale and mechanics of ICE operations, deportation trends, and the human cost of detention expansion.

  • The Custody Ledger

    Independent, reader-supported journalism tracking deaths in ICE custody — no ads, no paywall, no corporate backing.

  • Polimetrics

    Policy analysis covering the structural and financial incentives driving detention expansion, including the bed quota system and 287(g) program dynamics.

  • Eyes On ICE

    Substack with over 32,000 subscribers monitoring immigration enforcement policies and advocating for migrant rights.

Organizations

  • Detention Watch Network

    National coalition founded in 1997 working through advocacy, organizing, and communications to abolish immigration detention. Runs the Communities Not Cages campaign.

  • Freedom for Immigrants

    Immigrant-led abolitionist organization that monitors conditions inside detention facilities, operates a national detention hotline, and files civil rights complaints on behalf of people inside.

Journalism

  • The Marshall Project

    Pulitzer Prize-winning nonprofit newsroom covering the U.S. criminal justice system, with a sustained immigration detention beat and original data reporting.

  • ProPublica — Immigration

    Nonprofit investigative newsroom. Recent work includes a joint FRONTLINE investigation into the arrest of protesters during ICE sweeps and the criminal charges that followed.

  • FRONTLINE (PBS)

    PBS documentary series with deep immigration enforcement coverage. “Caught in the Crackdown” (2026) investigates the treatment of protesters and bystanders during Trump administration immigration sweeps.

  • Democracy Now!

    Independent daily news broadcast with regular on-the-ground coverage of ICE detention conditions, detainee testimony, and congressional response.