How many substantiated PREA investigations into ICE staff sexual misconduct were reported annually since 2010?
Executive summary
Public records and investigative reporting show that ICE and outside researchers have reported pockets of substantiated staff sexual-misconduct findings across multi-year windows — for example, 160 substantiations reported for 2012–2017 (ICE’s internal accounting provided to reporters) and 118 substantiated allegations identified in a 2018–2022 medical-journal analysis — but the available documents in this dossier do not provide a complete, consistent year-by-year tally of PREA substantiations from 2010 onward [1] [2].
1. What the public records actually contain and what they do not
ICE’s public statements, FOIA audits, and investigative journalism produce multi‑year aggregates, single‑year highlights, and facility audit snapshots rather than a uniform annual time series; for example, reporting shows ICE counted 160 substantiated complaints from 2012–2017 (a 12% substantiation rate across that window) but the source does not publish yearly breakdowns for each calendar year in that span [1]. A peer‑reviewed analysis covering 2018–2022 reports 118 substantiated sexual‑assault allegations out of 922 total allegations reported to facility administration in that period, but again it aggregates across five years and does not publish per‑year totals in the excerpt provided [2]. Several news investigations and advocacy FOIA products cite large totals of complaints (for example, roughly 14,700 complaints between 2010–2016 in one dataset described by ProPublica/Freedom for Immigrants), but those same products emphasize that most complaints were never fully investigated or were classified as unsubstantiated/unfounded, and they do not convert those large complaint pools into a consistent annual substantiation series [3] [4].
2. Representative figures and rates drawn from the sources
Where sources give figures, they show low substantiation rates relative to allegations: an ACLU review of cases from 2009–2013 found just 7% of 215 allegations substantiated in the sample it analyzed [5], the Intercept/ICE dataset showed about 160 substantiated out of 1,224 complaints from 2012–2017 (roughly 12%) as reported in the documents obtained and summarized by reporters [1], and the scientific study of facility‑reported allegations from 2018–2022 found 118 substantiated out of 922 allegations (12.8%) [2]. ICE audit reports for individual facilities show examples such as one facility audit listing one substantiated, three unsubstantiated and four unfounded allegations in its review period, illustrating that substantiations do occur but are often sparse in local audits [6].
3. Why a year‑by‑year count cannot be credibly produced from these documents alone
The available sources conflate different data systems (complaints vs. investigations vs. OIG referrals), use differing definitions and time windows, and often release only summarized multi‑year counts or isolated annual snapshots (for example ICE’s 2018 statement of 48 substantiated allegations that year cited in reporting, which exists alongside other aggregated multi‑year tallies) — making it impossible, based solely on the provided documents, to compile a verified calendar‑year list running from 2010 to the present without additional primary datasets from ICE/DOHS OPR or OIG with consistent annual breakdowns [3] [1] [2]. Independent watchdogs also highlight under‑investigation and classification problems — Freedom for Immigrants and advocacy FOIAs document thousands of complaints but say the OIG and ICE did not investigate most of them, underscoring gaps between complaints filed and substantiated findings [4] [3].
4. Best interim summary answer
The most reliable numbers in these sources are multi‑year totals: 160 substantiated staff‑related sexual‑misconduct findings reported in ICE’s 2012–2017 accounting provided to reporters [1], 118 substantiated facility‑reported sexual‑assault allegations across 2018–2022 in a peer‑reviewed analysis [2], and isolated reporting of 48 substantiated accusations in ICE’s 2018 public figures [3]. However, because the provided documents do not publish a consistent, verified annual series for every year since 2010, a definitive count "per year" cannot be produced from these sources alone; obtaining that would require ICE/OPR or DHS/OIG release of yearly substantiation data or a FOIA release of JICMS/OPR case‑level records that include calendar dates [7] [1] [2].