The number of immigrants held in detention across the United States has soared by over 50% since US President Donald Trump took office, reaching a historic high. Official data indicate that more than 60,000 individuals are now in long-term immigration detention, a significant increase from the approximately 39,000 held at the end of the Biden administration.

This sharp rise reflects Trump’s increasingly aggressive immigration crackdown, a central focus of his administration's policies aimed at detaining and deporting undocumented individuals.

However, the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) tally omits thousands of detainees held in unofficial or short-term facilities, as per an Axios review. These include military bases, temporary holding rooms, and new centers such as the controversial “Alligator Alcatraz” facility in Ochopee, Florida.

While the DHS count shows a record 60,000 in custody as of August 10, this does not account for immigrants detained in facilities not officially designated for long-term detention, leading experts to warn of serious undercounting.

“It’s evident that the numbers being published by ICE about people held in long-term residential facilities is severely undercounting the number of people who are in ICE custody at any given moment,” said Amelia Dagen of the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights.

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Expanding detention infrastructure nationwide

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The Trump administration continues to expand detention infrastructure nationwide. Florida's "Alligator Alcatraz" held around 700 detainees shortly after opening in July, though it was ordered to stop accepting migrants following a federal court ruling. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced plans to appeal the decision.

Military installations like Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas, are being repurposed to detain immigrants. Fort Bliss is expected to hold up to 1,000 people. However, detainees in such facilities are not included in DHS’ official records. ICE confirmed that “Alligator Alcatraz” is not technically an ICE facility, although it houses ICE detainees.

Temporary holding rooms in field offices and federal buildings also continue to hold hundreds of migrants for extended periods, often without being counted in official figures.

Legal and human rights concerns mount

Human rights organizations and legal advocates warn that the lack of transparency complicates efforts to locate and assist detainees. “Not having accurate and timely information from the ICE detainee locator makes it incredibly difficult for families and advocates and legal counsel to be able to locate and communicate with people who are detained,” said Eunice Cho of the ACLU.

Some experts have compared unaccounted detention sites to “black sites", due to the restricted access to legal counsel and oversight.

“The real bottlenecks are the courts,” said Michael Lukens of the Amica Center. “By removing someone’s ability to have access to counsel, you remove that bottleneck.”

What's next for Trump’s immigration policies?

As Trump's immigration policies continue to intensify, private contractors such as CoreCivic and the Geo Group anticipate further business with ICE. States like Indiana, Nebraska, and Louisiana have announced plans to build facilities similar to "Alligator Alcatraz."

According to the Prison Policy Initiative, the trend reflects a calculated effort by the Trump administration to expand the reach and capacity of the immigration detention system.

"The Trump administration has shown that it is willing to pull out basically all the stops to increase the detention and deportation of undocumented people," said Wanda Bertram of PPI.

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