Jun. 9—Alaska’s correctional facilities are holding 40 immigration detainees from Outside under a deal between the state and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The Alaska Department of Corrections, which operates the state’s jails and prisons, “received approximately 40 male detainees” from ICE under an existing contract to hold federal detainees, deputy commissioner April Wilkerson said in an email Monday.
ICE approached officials with the Alaska correctional system about the transfer, according to Wilkerson.
It was not immediately clear where exactly the detainees came from. The group of 40 dwarfs the number of people taken into ICE custody and detained in Alaska correctional facilities so far this year: 11 as of the end of May.
Many other details remained unclear as of Monday morning, including at which of Alaska’s jails or prisons they were located and how the transfer deal came to be.
“This long standing arrangement is part of an interagency effort to support federal operations and is not expected to impact DOC’s existing population management or operations,” the statement from Wilkerson said.
Statewide, the DOC was at 82.6% of its total capacity of 5,921 beds as of Monday, according to the department. Both jails and prisons are operated under the state’s unified system, and occupancy rates by individual institution were not clear.
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The detainees are expected to be in Alaska for about a month, Wilkerson wrote.
The DOC will be paid $223.70 per day for each person detained in federal immigration custody, according to the contract.
Since President Donald Trump took office in January, states around the country have reported increased immigration raids, arrests and mass deportations. ICE operations began in February in Anchorage.
As of Monday morning, a regional ICE spokesperson had not answered questions sent by the Daily News.
Alaska’s state jails have already been used to detain the smaller number of people taken into custody by ICE within the state.
Nicolás Olano, an immigration attorney in Anchorage, said the conditions at the Anchorage jail complex, where most in-state ICE detainees have initially been housed in the past, are “inhumane” compared with the nearest ICE facility in Tacoma, Washington.
“In Tacoma, detainees have space to hang out in and are not in cells 24/7,” he wrote. “That is not the case in the ACC. Moreover, they get recreation time in Tacoma, not here — they do not go out.”
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.