ICE Detainee Population Reaches New Record After 70% Climb During Trump Administration

The detainee population under Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has reached a new record, according to a new report.

CBS News detailed that there are now 66,000 people detained by ICE, a 70% increase since President Donald Trump took office. The previous high also took place under Trump but in 2019, when the figure reached 56,000 detainees.

The outlet noted that ICE now has enough beds to hold as many as 70,000 people at any time, up from 41,500 at the beginning of the second Trump administration. And capacity is set to continue expanding considering that the agency got $45 billion as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

In another passage of the piece, CBS News cited internal figures from the Department of Homeland Security showing that around 33,000 detainees did not have criminal charges or convictions and were being held due to civil immigration violations. The other half did have criminal charges or convictions.

Another report noted that ICE has increasingly held people for days or weeks inside small, undisclosed holding facilities despite internal rules limiting confinement to a matter of hours.

The Guardian said that the findings indicate widespread violations of agency policy, minimal oversight, and conditions that advocates say raise serious safety and due-process concerns.

The outlet added that it reviewed federal booking data from September 2023 through late July and found that ICE has used at least 170 holding sites nationwide, including inside 25 field offices. These sites are typically bare concrete rooms without beds and are meant for short-term processing.

Until June, ICE's own rules limited confinement in such rooms to 12 hours. A June memo increased the limit to three days, but the investigation found people continued to be held for longer — in some cases, much longer.

The Guardian found no evidence of routine audits or inspections at these facilities. Attorneys are generally denied entry, and ICE has said the sites are not formally considered detention centers, exempting them from standards that apply elsewhere. Neither ICE nor the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) provided comment in time for publication.

Officials have cited surging arrests, limited detention capacity, and backlogged immigration courts to justify increased reliance on these rooms. Advocates say the June policy shift was designed to shield the agency from legal liability. "This is ICE trying to give themselves a buffer to keep holding people in conditions they know are unsafe," said Amelia Dagen of the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights to The Guardian.

Additional reporting in recent weeks highlights broader concerns about ICE's detention practices. A joint Harvard University–Physicians for Human Rights report published on October 11 found that immigration facilities have placed nearly 14,000 people in prolonged solitary confinement since April 2024, often for weeks at a time — a practice the report described as psychological torture under U.N. standards.