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How many ICE detention centers existed in 2024 and where are they located?
Executive Summary
Two competing portraits of ICE detention in 2024 emerge from the sources: one set documents roughly 106–122 active facilities in early 2024, while other snapshots and trackers report 111 to more than 190 locations used that year depending on the counting method. The divergence reflects clear differences in definitions, timing, and whether local jails, temporary sites and contractor facilities are counted, so there is no single uncontested facility count for 2024 without a tight definition of “detention center” [1] [2] [3] [4].
1. Why the numbers diverge so widely — the counting fight that changes the headline
Different sources use different definitions of what counts as an “ICE detention center,” producing wildly different totals. Some counts capture only facilities holding at least one detainee on a given snapshot date, which produced figures like 106 facilities in January 2024 and 111 later in 2024 [1] [2]. Other reports expand the definition to include every site ICE has used in a period — contract prisons, local jails under intergovernmental service agreements (IGSAs), short-term processing centers, and temporary surge sites — yielding totals cited as more than 190 facilities in a 2024 snapshot [3]. The methodological point is decisive: a count that includes transient or rarely used sites will be much larger than a count limited to continuously occupied centers, so discrepancies are methodological rather than purely factual [2] [3].
2. What official ICE listings show and why they matter
ICE’s own facility lists and detainee-holding directories published into 2025 catalog large numbers of sites and name specific facilities across states and territories, but they are not consistently comparable across time because ICE updates statuses, opens temporary contracts, and retires others. A June 2025 ICE facility directory enumerates numerous sites across many field offices — listing known facilities such as Adelanto in California, Alamance County in North Carolina, and Anchorage Correctional Complex in Alaska — but it does not provide a retrospective single-count figure for 2024 in that entry [5]. Because ICE’s operational rolls change with new contracts and local agreements, the agency’s lists are authoritative for presence and location at a given point but must be timestamped to answer “how many existed in 2024” precisely [5].
3. Independent trackers and advocates—larger totals, policy critique and geographic patterns
Advocacy and investigative trackers often report higher totals and broader geographic dispersion, emphasizing use of local jails and remote contract facilities that complicate access to counsel and family visitation. One late-2024 analysis reported over 190 facilities across more than 40 states and territories, and highlighted concentration of detained people in Texas, Louisiana, California, Arizona, and Georgia; it also noted Congressional funding increases for detention capacity [3]. These trackers aim to document every location ICE has relied upon, including short-term surge sites, and often pair counts with critiques of conditions, which introduces an agenda to emphasize system scale and harms; that agenda affects selection of what to count [3].
4. Mid-2025 reconciliations and interim figures that shed light on 2024 totals
Follow-up reviews in early-to-mid 2025 produced intermediate totals—122 facilities in February 2025 in one review and reports of a jump from 111 to 144 facilities in a six-month window as contracts and local agreements were added [4] [2]. Those figures illustrate how rapidly the operational inventory can change: adding private contractor sites and expanding 287(g) partnerships or IGSAs can increase the number of locations where ICE detains people. The mid-2025 numbers do not retroactively fix 2024’s total but show that counting at different dates around the turn of the year will produce materially different answers, reinforcing that a singular 2024 number depends on precise snapshot date and inclusion rules [2] [4].
5. Bottom line and best-practice reading of the record for 2024
The most defensible answer is a range with methodological caveats: if “detention centers” means continuously used ICE facilities holding detainees on snapshot dates in early-to-mid 2024, credible sources record about 106–122 sites; if the term includes every site ICE used at any point in 2024 — contract prisons, local jails under IGSA, short-term processing centers and surge sites — counts climb to 111–190+ depending on the tracker and exact period [1] [2] [3] [4]. For precise mapping, use ICE’s dated facility lists and cross-reference independent locators; for policy or legal questions, specify whether temporary and locally managed jails are to be counted because that choice changes the conclusion and implications dramatically [5] [3].