Overcapacity at detention centers has caused U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to release some migrant detainees, CBS News reported, citing internal government statistics.
ICE detention facilities were at 109% capacity, with the agency holding close to 42,000 migrant detainees, despite having on paper a 38,521-bed capacity in its network of for-profit prisons and county jails, according to internal Department of Homeland Security data obtained by CBS News.
ICE released 160 migrants from custody Monday due to the overcrowding. Those released are fitted with ankle monitors, CBS News said.
"We are exploring every solution including working with U.S. Customs and Border Protection and our state and local law enforcement partners, asking Congress for increased funding, and scrutinizing case files to quickly remove criminal aliens with executable final orders of removal from Department of Justice immigration judges," ICE said in a statement to CBS News.
Last week, ICE stepped up arrests, picking up about 1,000 people per day. In former President Joe Biden's last year in office, ICE made 312 arrests per day.
Some were deported back to their country, but federal court cases limit the agency from detaining people indefinitely if their country refuses to take them back.
ICE is eyeing 14 new detention sites that could hold as many as 1,000 detainees each as well as four larger facilities with 10,000 beds each, CBS News reported. The Department of Defense has already authorized ICE to detain migrants at a Space Force base in Colorado.
Border Patrol's detention space is well under capacity due to border crossings dropping dramatically. On Tuesday morning, Customs and Border Protection had fewer than 2,000 migrants in its custody, using roughly 9% of its 21,000-person detention capacity, according to the internal DHS data obtained by CBS News.
In January, Border Patrol processed nearly 30,000 migrants who crossed the southern border illegally, the lowest level since May 2020, CBS News said, citing internal government figures.