Immigration Detention in Arizona [FACT SHEET]

• Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention beds in facilities in Arizona: 2,600 (8% of the total number of ICE detention beds nationwide).
• ICE detention beds in Arizona county jails: 700.
• ICE detention beds in privately run facilities (including county jails) in Arizona: almost 1,800.

ICE Facilities in Arizona

• One ICE-run Service Processing Center, Florence Service Processing Center, has almost 400 detention beds.
• One Contract Detention Facility, Eloy, is run by Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), a private prison contractor, and has 1,500 immigration detention beds.
• Three county jails – Pinal County Jail, Florence Correctional Center, and Central Arizona Detention Center – hold the remaining 700 ICE detention beds in Arizona. Both Florence Correctional Center and Central Arizona Detention Center are run by CCA.
• The non-profit Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project seeks to provide legal assistance for indigent men and women detained in all five ICE facilities in Florence and Eloy.

The Facts

• ICE holds the overwhelming majority of the 429,000 asylum seekers and other immigrants it detains annually – under civil immigration law authority – in jails and jail-like facilities.
• ICE has 33,400 detention beds in about 250 facilities across the country.
• Arriving asylum seekers and many other immigrants are detained without access to individual court review of their detention.
• ICE spends $2 billion per year on detention – 28 times its budget for alternatives to detention.
• Immigration detention costs taxpayers $164 per day. Alternatives cost taxpayers 30 cents to $14 per day.
• Immigrants in removal proceedings do not receive government-funded counsel. Immigration detention creates a tremendous barrier to accessing legal representation. 40% of ICE’s detention beds are in remote locations.
• Highly regarded Legal Orientation Presentations reach just 15% of detained immigrants and 35% of detained immigrants in removal proceedings annually.