ICE prison population returns to pre-pandemic levels

Six months into the Biden administration, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency is holding as many people as it did before the Covid-19 pandemic sharply curtailed prison populations. In early July 2021, ICE held more people on an average day in its prison network than at any time since April 2020.

ICE records detention data using the federal government's fiscal year which begins October 1. According to the agency’s data, ICE held an average daily population of 27,292 people as of...