© 2025 WFAE

Mailing Address:
WFAE 90.7
P.O. Box 896890
Charlotte, NC 28289-6890
Tax ID: 56-1803808
90.7 Charlotte 93.7 Southern Pines 90.3 Hickory 106.1 Laurinburg
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Most people flagged by ICE in NC are not taken into custody, study shows

Those who are taken into ICE custody typically arrive at Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia.
Southern Poverty Law Center
/
Submitted
Those who are taken into ICE custody typically arrive at Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia.

Data from Syracuse University shows that while U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has increased the number of detainers sent to jails nationwide by 72%, fewer individuals are being taken into ICE custody.

The data shows that in North Carolina, 447 detainers were issued from Jan. 20 to Feb. 17. However, only 53 people — 12% — were taken into ICE custody.

In the same period,18,945 detainers were issued nationwide, and 2,733 people — 14% — were taken into ICE custody.

A detainer is a request from ICE to local jails to hold an undocumented inmate for up to 48 hours beyond their scheduled release, allowing ICE to take custody and begin the deportation process.

Immigrant advocates like Stefania Arteaga of the Carolina Migrant Network say the gap is due to resources.

“ICE does not have the capacity to travel from the Charlotte area to the Triad to the Triangle, picking people up," Arteaga said. "There's not the capacity, there's not the bandwidth, there's not the funding either from the feds or from local sheriffs.”

ICE, however, says that certain sheriffs, such as Mecklenburg County Sheriff Garry McFadden, do not follow up with ICE before releasing inmates.

And if House Bill 318 in the General Assembly — which mandates increased sheriff cooperation with ICE — becomes law, Arteaga says the number of people taken into ICE custody could rise.

Sign up for EQUALibrium

A fluent Spanish speaker, Julian Berger will focus on Latino communities in and around Charlotte, which make up the largest group of immigrants. He will also report on the thriving immigrant communities from other parts of the world — Indian Americans are the second-largest group of foreign-born Charlotteans, for example — that continue to grow in our region.