Missing ICE records leave the public in the dark on detention center conditions

Public dashboards tracking how many people are held in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention — and how many have died in custody — have gone several weeks without updates, according to a Straight Arrow News review of the agency’s data.

ICE typically updates its detention population data on a bi-weekly basis and posts detainee death information shortly after each reported death once basic details are confirmed. But those regular updates stopped in recent weeks. That gap is making it difficult for families, researchers and the public to independently assess conditions in detention at a time when enforcement appears to be expanding, according to researchers who track the system.

The most recent publicly available figures, analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, showed 68,289 people in ICE detention as of Feb. 7. A system that’s usually updated every two weeks is now a month-and-a-half behind.

TRAC, a nonpartisan research center at Syracuse University, compiles detailed immigration enforcement data primarily through Freedom of Information Act requests and makes it publicly available.

When SAN asked TRAC why its own numbers have not been updated more recently, the organization responded via email: “We’re afraid you will need to ask ICE why they haven’t updated these figures.”

ICE did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

At the same time, questions are mounting about deaths in ICE custody. The agency’s official detainee death dashboard — last updated Jan. 6 — provides only partial information for this year.

The dashboard lists only one death in 2026, but a Reuters analysis found at least 13, following 33 deaths from last year, a two-decade high.

Groups across the political spectrum told SAN the information gap makes it difficult to assess what is happening inside the system.

But federal officials have not publicly explained why the data has not been updated.

Agency data slows during government shutdown

During the partial government shutdown that began Feb. 14, many Department of Homeland Security (DHS) staff members were furloughed.

“The ICE Freedom of Information Act Office is furloughed and the agency is not working on our requests,” said David Hausman, a researcher with the Deportation Data Project at the University of California, Berkeley. “That larger data set we’ve gotten through FOIA just has so much more information in it.”

Hausman said his team has not received an updated version of its detailed ICE dataset since October.

While ICE has not responded to SAN’s request about the data lag, the timing coincides with recent government shutdowns. Still, Hausman told SAN he believes the agency should be able to maintain basic transparency.

A 2025 tax-and-spending package, often referred to as the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” allocates $45 billion for ICE to expand its immigration detention system.

“I think it’s fair to say that if, at a time when the agency is historically flush with funds, it should also be able to afford this very inexpensive form of transparency,” he said.

During the 2025 government shutdown, DHS announced ICE officers would continue enforcement despite not receiving any pay.

“We will not let the government shutdown slow us down from making America safe again,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in an Oct. 8, 2025, press release. “Our law enforcement officers are working around the clock to arrest and remove heinous criminals from our country.”

Phil Neff, project coordinator at the University of Washington Center for Human Rights, said his organization has encountered delays similar to Hausman’s, including in ongoing litigation.

“They’ve claimed most recently in court that the FOIA office is on furlough,” Neff said.

Neff told SAN his organization has had to sue DHS three times for public records. That lack of transparency, he said, is not unique to the Trump administration. 

“This is a long-term trend where the government can deny a FOIA or simply not respond,” Neff said. “If you want to get any type of response you have to take them to court.”

The detailed records obtained through FOIA — often after multiple requests or lawsuits — include information on individual arrests, detention history and transfers between facilities. Researchers told SAN those datasets provide a far more complete picture than the agency’s public dashboards.

“We just don’t know what the government’s deportation policy looks like right now,” Hausman told SAN. “We don’t know whether or how much enforcement changed after the events in Minneapolis. We just don’t know much about what’s happening in broad terms in immigration enforcement because of the lack of data.”

A SAN analysis of data published by TRAC did show that the number of people being held in detention centers fell between Jan. 25 — the day after Alex Pretti was shot in Minneapolis — and Feb. 7 fell for the first time since summer 2025. In that two-week period, detention capacity dropped by 3.5%. 

That was the last time data was made available. 

Neff said these datasets should be maintained — even during a shutdown — similar to how jails and prisons maintain a roster.

“That’s clearly a major barrier for accountability and public awareness,” Neff told SAN.

Bipartisan concern grows over ICE data

Even organizations that support large-scale deportations are frustrated by the lag in data, which is compounded by concerns that the numbers themselves may not reflect reality on the ground.

Kyle Brosnan, a former DHS official and lawyer with the conservative-leaning Oversight Project, told SAN the official deportation numbers may be inflated.

“We’re very concerned with the number of removals and deportations. President Trump was elected on the promise to carry out the largest deportation operation in American history, and that’s not happening,” Brosnan said.

He noted that ICE counts voluntary departures in its removal figures.

“What they’re classifying as a removal includes aliens leaving the country in ways that normal, everyday Americans would not consider an actual deportation,” Brosnan said.

Strange bedfellows are appearing in this call for transparency: Groups pushing for more aggressive enforcement and those focused on conditions in detention raised alarms in interviews with SAN. 

“Our motto is, ‘It’s Your Government’ because we think the government, regardless of who’s in power, needs to be transparent with the American people,” Brosnan said. “We share the concerns with people who probably disagree with us politically.”

Neff agreed.

“Transparency is and should be a bipartisan goal,” he said. “Concerns about transparency, government accountability and civil liberties should be cross-cutting.”

Why the numbers matter

Experts who spoke with SAN have also raised concerns about how incidents inside detention facilities are initially described and later investigated, particularly in cases involving serious injury or death.

In one recent case, a 55-year-old Cuban detainee, Geraldo Lunas Campos, died on Jan. 3 at an ICE detention facility in Texas. Federal officials initially said Lunas Campos experienced medical distress and later suggested he may have attempted suicide while resisting staff.

But an autopsy by the El Paso County medical examiner reached a different conclusion, ruling the death a homicide caused by “asphyxia due to neck and torso compression.” Lunas Campos’ body showed signs of a struggle, with abrasions on his chest and knees. The autopsy also found hemorrhages in his neck, SAN reported in January. 

The case remains under investigation.

Neff said cases like this highlight how serious the consequences can be when incidents in detention are not fully or immediately understood.

“In many cases in the immigration enforcement system, these are matters of life and death,” he said. “Certainly in case of deaths in detention there should be a high threshold of transparency and accountability.”

He added: “For me as a researcher, it’s just always being grounded in the fact that these records relate to human beings who are going through a really terrible experience in many cases, and we hope that obtaining records and making them public when appropriate will help to further justice and accountability for rights that have been violated.”

Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief