US Migrant Detention System — Open Source Intelligence Dashboard

73,000 people detained · 32+ deaths in 2025 · 528 facilities · $45B in new funding · 79 deportation destinations

The United States is building the largest immigration detention system in its history.

Since January 2025, the number of people held in ICE custody has nearly doubled — from 40,000 to over 73,000 — the highest level ever recorded. More than 41% of those detained have no criminal record of any kind.

Congress has allocated $45 billion for detention expansion — enough to fund 75,000 immigration judges for a decade, or to clear the entire 3.7-million-case court backlog in four years. Instead, that money is being used to build warehouse mega-prisons, tent camps on military bases, and the first state-run detention facility operating entirely outside federal oversight.

2025 was the deadliest year in ICE custody in two decades. Oversight has been gutted — the Detention Ombudsman was dissolved, inspections dropped 36%, and ICE has denied members of Congress access to facilities they are legally entitled to visit. Courts have ruled more than 4,400 times that people are being detained illegally. The administration has deported people to 79 countries, sent 280 men to a foreign mega-prison without due process, and plans to expand capacity to 135,000 beds by 2029.

This dashboard compiles open-source information from over 30 organizations — research institutes, human rights groups, government watchdogs, investigative newsrooms, flight trackers, and official data — to make the scale, geography, and human cost of this system visible and navigable. Every data point is sourced. Every facility is documented. The information is public. The pattern is clear.