Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, published the last fiscal year's detention statistics in June. After reviewing the data, WMRA's Randi B. Hagi spoke with the agency's Washington, D.C. and Virginia field office director and filed this report.
Earlier this month, WMRA reported on ICE's detention statistics, focusing on the Farmville Detention Center in Prince Edward County. Notably, we found that over 75% of the people held there in the last fiscal year had no criminal conviction, but over half were classified as criminals. In light of that difference, I asked Field Office Director Russell Hott, who oversees ICE's Washington, D.C. office that covers the state of Virginia, how they define "criminality."
RUSSELL HOTT: An individual who has been either charged or convicted of a crime.
So that would include people who have been charged with a crime, but whose criminal case has not gone to trial or otherwise been resolved yet.
HOTT: But I would say to you that that is not exclusive to a threat risk. Whether or not somebody is defined by criminality does not take into account other immigration violators who are also foreign fugitives – that means individuals who are wanted overseas for other crimes, who may not have criminal histories here in the United States. It also includes gang members ... traffickers, national security threats, and other such factors.
In Virginia's other ICE detention facility, in Caroline County, 78% of the average daily population had no criminal conviction. For detention facilities across the country, that figure is nearly 84%. But Hott said his agency is not prioritizing detaining people without criminal convictions.
HOTT: No, I would say that the agency continues to prioritize the greatest risk to our communities. That includes national security threats, that includes individuals with criminality, but it also includes the aforementioned categories like gang activity. … We are also aware of individuals who are significant human rights violators and national security risks with no criminal history here. … There was an Eastern European man who had been part of a guerilla warfare unit. … He raped a mother and her daughter and then lit the house on fire with them inside to die. He then fled to the United States and lived here for 20 years. … That's an individual with no criminality here in the United States that is absolutely a risk to humanity.
Hott said the Eastern European man was wanted for those crimes in his home country, but would have been classified in their data as having "no ICE threat level," since he had no criminal convictions in America. I asked how many people detained at Farmville and Caroline over the last fiscal year had an outstanding warrant in another country. Hott said they could pull those numbers after our interview, but they have not yet been provided to WMRA despite repeated requests over the last week.
What is ICE's burden of proof when it comes to allegations of criminal, gang, or terrorist activity here or abroad that make an immigrant a target for detention?
HOTT: We are not serving as the judge or the jury for the other state, local, or federal agencies. We are making the arrest and detaining because this person also violated another section of law, so from my humble perspective, those are two separate and distinct issues.
That other violation of law being their unauthorized presence in the U.S. I brought up cases that listeners have reported to us of people being detained at ICE check-ins. The Guardian previously reported that the Trump administration has established a quota of 3,000 immigration arrests per day.
HAGI: How is your agency making those decisions of detaining people who voluntarily show up to a check-in and have no criminal conviction?
HOTT: Well, regardless, again of the criminality, right, there's still a violation of Title 8 of the U.S. Code.
That contains the federal statutes concerning immigration and border security.
HOTT: That individual could have already had due process before the immigration proceedings and was ordered removed from the country. … It could be somebody where, again, they were encountered by border patrol on the southwest border and were paroled into the country, and parole has expired and they have not taken any action to adjust their status. They could have overstayed the terms of their visa. All of these are violations of law and subject to arrest, from my standpoint. Again, the criminality is a separate issue, and again, it doesn't always reflect or depict the total risk that an individual presents.
HAGI: You know, we're hearing a lot of rhetoric from the federal government right now that their focus is removing people who are violent threats to public safety, so I'm just trying to get into the meat of the issue of, is that actually what's being carried out?
HOTT: So, the thing here is that we continue to prioritize the greater risks, overall, but it does not exclude individuals who have committed other violations of law from being arrested. … The fact that somebody enters the country unlawfully – it's in the term, right? It's unlawful.
Hott also provided removal statistics for the Farmville and Caroline detention centers combined. In fiscal year 2024, about 1,800 people were deported from the two facilities. In fiscal year 2025, that number topped 2,500, an increase of 41%.
