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Reentry Resource Center - New York

Serving People from Arrest to Reintegration

New York City Enforcement of Immigration Detainers - Preliminary Findings (Justice Strategies)

  • Organization: Justice Strategies
  • Document Type: Report
  • Date Created: Friday, October 15, 2010
  • Submitted: Monday, November 22, 2010
  • Attachment(s): LINK

Preliminary report by Justice Strategies looks into the impact of immigration enforcement in New York City jail facilities. The report uses data from the Department of Corrections for noncitizen prisoners whose top charge is a drug-related offense. Among its finding are:

  • While Homeland Security purports to target the most dangerous offenders, there appears to be no correlation between offense level and identification for deportation.
  • In New York City, Homeland Security detainers are enforced in such a fashion as to effectively terminate the bail rights of certain pre-trial noncitizen prisoners.
  • Controlling for race and offense level, noncitizens with an ICE detainer spend 73 days longer in jail before being discharged, on average, than those without an ICE detainer.

The preliminary report is part of a Justice Strategies' research for a forthcoming report on the combined impact of drug laws and immigration enforcement on jailers, prisoners and taxpayers.