WASHINGTON, D.C. — A new report released Friday by the nonprofit Vera Institute of Justice says recent ICE detention data show a sharp increase in immigrant detention populations at facilities across the United States, with the system reaching record levels under the second Trump administration.
According to the report issued April 10, 2026, recent ICE detention center data show a large increase in immigrant detention populations in ICE detention facilities throughout the U.S.
Vera, described on its website as a nonprofit organization based in New York City, reports that as of mid-March 2026, detention populations had reached “unprecedented levels,” with populations on each day since mid-June 2025 exceeding the previous peak in August 2019. Vera reports that in mid-January, the immigration detention population “reached a record high,” with 73,400 people detained on a single day.
According to Vera, since the second Trump administration began, ICE has booked people into detention roughly 444,900 times, with the number of detention bookings in the first two and a half months of 2026 representing a 61% increase from the same period last year.
According to Vera, ICE detained between 1,300 and 1,800 people each day from November 2025 to mid-March 2026 in the highly controversial Florida Soft-Sided Facility-South, colloquially known as “Alligator Alcatraz.”
Following the opening of the facility in July 2025, the site had already reached daily population levels of nearly 1,500 people by August. The number of people detained there dropped briefly in late August and early September, when a federal judge ordered the closure of the facility, but rapidly increased again after an appellate panel put the closure order on hold. Vera reports that since then, ICE has continued to detain people there in high numbers.
In addition to “Alligator Alcatraz,” Vera’s report states that ICE is using detention facilities across all 50 states as well as Guam, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the Northern Mariana Islands and Puerto Rico. The states with the most facilities in use are Texas, with 61 facilities; Florida, with 38; California, with 23; and Virginia, with 23.
According to the report, ICE is using a total of 456 facilities, excluding medical facilities, despite only acknowledging 220 facilities on its website and in public reports. According to Vera, since President Donald Trump took office, ICE has opened 152 new facilities to detain immigrants and reopened 170 others as well.
According to Vera, many of the corporations operating these facilities are “for-profit prison corporations,” and the Trump administration is considering using warehouses to detain immigrants in the country unlawfully. Vera alleges that these private companies “have financially gained from the Trump administration’s expansion of detention, despite being fraught with reports of inhumane conditions, overcrowding, and lack of access to counsel.”
According to Vera’s website, the report is based on data the organization obtains through public records requests, Freedom of Information Act requests and litigation as part of Vera’s Deportation Data Project, which obtains, posts and analyzes internal U.S. government immigration enforcement data through public records litigation. According to Vera, however, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has not issued a report since early February amid the recent DHS shutdown.
Overall, Vera’s report paints a picture of a rapidly expanding immigration detention system under the second Trump administration, marked by record-high detained populations, increased use of larger facilities and growing reliance on private prison companies. While supporters may view these measures as a sign of stricter immigration enforcement, critics, including Vera, argue that the scale and conditions of detention raise serious concerns about transparency, human rights and the role of profit in incarceration.
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