The number of detainees held in Kentucky county jails contracting with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) increased by 659% from January to August this year, according to a report by the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy.
In January, the Boone County Detention Center was the only full time ICE detention center in Kentucky — as it had been for years — holding roughly 120 detainees.
By August, nine county jails were contracted with ICE to hold their detainees, with the total rising to 914.
The figures of the progressive think tank and advocacy group were compiled with assistance from Relevant Research, a firm that computes an average daily population of jails across the country contracted with ICE in two week intervals, based on data from ICE.
President Donald Trump has dramatically changed federal immigration policy since coming into office in January, seeking the mass deportation of the estimated 14 million undocumented immigrants in the United States. His administration has increasingly enlisted local law enforcement agencies and prisons to work with ICE, as the federal agency seeks to arrest 3,000 immigrants per day.
According to the KyPolicy report, Boone County’s ICE detainees nearly doubled by August, but the largest growth in the state’s total came from additional county jails contracting with ICE to hold large numbers of their detainees for the first time.
In February, the Oldham County Detention Center first contracted with ICE, with the number of average detainees steadily growing to 131 by August. The Grayson County Detention Center started housing ICE detainees that same month, with its average growing to more than 100 by June.
The Hopkins County Jail was the fifth in the state to contract with ICE to hold detainees in May, and has already grown to house the largest number of detainees other than Boone County, holding nearly 180 by August.
The Campbell County Detention Center contracted with ICE by April, growing to nearly 150 average detainees by mid-August. In neighboring Kenton County, the local jail contracted with ICE this summer, holding roughly 84 detainees by August.
Other Kentucky county jails contracted with ICE to hold detainees this year include Bourbon, Fayette, and Laurel, though none of the three have averaged more than a dozen detainees in any of the two-week intervals, according to the study.
The KyPolicy report also found that ICE has arrested nearly 1,300 people in Kentucky from mid-January to the end of July, which is a 37.6% increase from the same period in 2024.
