Nason/ice-database

ICE Enforcement Database

A clean, queryable DuckDB database built from ICE enforcement data published by the Deportation Data Project (Berkeley Law / UCLA) via FOIA litigation.

17,824,184 rows across 5 tables covering ICE arrests, detainers, detentions, removals, and custody decisions.

Combines two FOIA releases:

• 2023 release (FY2012-FY2023): arrests, detentions, removals, RCA decisions
• 2025 settlement release (Sep 2023 - Oct 2025): arrests, detainers, detentions

Every row has a data_source column (release_2023 or release_2025) so you can filter by release. Overlapping records are deduplicated, preferring the richer 2025 data.

Built with ice-database.

Quick Start

DuckDB CLI

INSTALL httpfs;
LOAD httpfs;
ATTACH 'https://huggingface.co/datasets/Nason/ice-database/resolve/main/ice.duckdb' AS ice (READ_ONLY);

-- Arrests by month
SELECT DATE_TRUNC('month', apprehension_date) AS month, COUNT(*) AS arrests
FROM ice.arrests
WHERE apprehension_date IS NOT NULL
GROUP BY 1 ORDER BY 1 DESC LIMIT 12;

Python

import duckdb
con = duckdb.connect()
con.sql("INSTALL httpfs; LOAD httpfs;")
con.sql(\"\"\"
    ATTACH 'https://huggingface.co/datasets/Nason/ice-database/resolve/main/ice.duckdb'
    AS ice (READ_ONLY)
\"\"\")
con.sql("SELECT * FROM ice._metadata").show()

DuckDB uses HTTP range requests, so only the pages needed for your query are downloaded.

Tables

Table	Description	Rows	Cols	Sources	Date Range
detentions	Detention stays (book-in to book-out)	8,944,408	41	release_2023, release_2025	1995-08-31 to 2025-10-16
rca_decisions	Release/custody assessment decision history	3,543,467	42	release_2023
removals	Deportation/removal records	2,771,219	29	release_2023	0212-06-29 to 2023-10-27
arrests	ICE administrative arrests	2,168,784	23	release_2023, release_2025	2011-10-01 to 2025-10-16
detainers	Detainer requests issued to jails/prisons	396,306	63	release_2025	1989-09-25 to 2025-10-15

Key Features

Linked Records

Tables share a unique_id field for tracing individuals across the enforcement pipeline: arrests -> detainers -> detentions -> removals.

Pre-built Views

• v_arrest_to_detention - Arrests joined to detention stays
• v_enforcement_pipeline - Full pipeline: arrest -> detention -> removal
• v_daily_arrests - Daily arrest counts by data source

Multi-release Deduplication

Where both releases cover the same period, records are deduplicated on key fields (unique_id + date + facility) with the richer 2025 release preferred.

Data Source

Deportation Data Project (Berkeley Law / UCLA). Data obtained through FOIA litigation against ICE.

License

Database build code: MIT. Underlying data: public domain (U.S. government records released via FOIA).

GitHub

Full source code, build instructions, and example queries: github.com/ian-nason/ice-database