California leads the nation by leaps by bounds as the state that most often declined requests to detain illegal migrants arrested for criminal charges, according to newly released data.
More than half of all ignored detainers since fiscal year 2023 were refused by prisons and jails in California, according to data obtained by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), a Washington, D.C.,-based group that advocates for more stricter border enforcement. CIS analyzed data from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on detention facilities across the country that refused to honor ICE detainer requests.
Of the 22,283 declined detainers documented across the United States from fiscal year 2023 to Feb. 6, 2025, more than 13,000 came from California alone, according to the data. Illinois came in a distant second place with 2,946 declined detainers and Virginia rounded up the top three with 1,601 declined detainers for this time period.
