ICE keeps its detainees on the move

Before being deported, immigrants often are bounced all over the country

- By Gabrielle LaMarr LeMee

ICE transferred detainees between facilities 308,800 times this year From January through July, ICE held and transferred more than 180,000 migrants across more than 600 facilities. The facilities most used in this system are in Arizona, Texas, Louisiana and Florida.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement data from the Deportation Data Project GABRIELLE LAMARR LEMEE Los Angeles Times

At 3:25 in the morning of July 24, Milagro Solis Portillo was woken up and booked out of B-18, ICE's basement detention facility in the downtown L.A. courthouse.

She was not told where she was headed as she was put onto a commercial flight along with two immigration officer escorts. A few hours later, she was booked into the Clark County Jail in Jefferson, Ind.

Ming Tanigawa-Lau, an attorney at Immigrant Defenders Law Center who represented Portillo, said her transfer was retaliatory, especially when there was open space at nearby facilities. The 36-year-old's encounters with ICE had caused a local stir. She suffered a medical incident during her arrest outside her home in Sherman Oaks that required treatment at Glendale Memorial Hospital.

ICE RELIES on a vast network of U.S. facilities to house immigrants. Above, detainees board a flight at Portsmouth International Airport in Pease, N.H., on Aug. 16.

While at the hospital, she was monitored constantly by immigration officers. Local activists and representatives held events protesting her treatment. After two weeks, ICE forcibly removed her from the hospital against the advice of her medical team and sent her to B-18 and then across the country.