Immigrant Detention: Can ICE Meet Its Legal Imperatives and Case Management Responsibilities?

On August 6, 2009, Homeland Security Assistant Secretary John Morton announced that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was conducting a major overhaul of the agency's immigration detention system.  ICE’s subsequent disclosure that 10 more persons had died in its custody between 2004 and 2007 than had previously been reported underscores the need for detention reform and, in particular, for reform of ICE’s information systems.  

MPI’s report, Immigrant Detention: Can ICE Meet Its Legal Imperatives and Case Management Responsibilities?, provides a roadmap for meeting the data needs that are essential for the overhaul to succeed.  The report’s co-authors, MPI Vice President for Programs Donald Kerwin and MPI Data/Statistical Analyst Serena Lin, presented the paper, which analyzes select data of persons in ICE custody and examines the sufficiency of ICE’s information systems in light of the agency’s legal mandates and management imperatives.  The report sets forth recommendations for specific information that ICE must capture and track to meet its responsibilities, along with tools to improve the organization of ICE’s detention system and the well-being of individuals within the system. Dora Schriro, head of ICE’s newly created Office of Detention Policy and Planning, and Andrea Black, Network Coordinator for the Detention Watch Network, provided comments in response to the report and on ICE’s new initiatives.