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Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told lawmakers Wednesday that sanctuary jurisdictions declined to honor 17,864 immigration detainer requests from federal authorities in 2025.
Noem provided the figure during a hearing before the House Judiciary Committee after Chairman Jim Jordan asked how frequently requests from Immigration and Customs Enforcement had gone unfulfilled last year.
“17,864 detainers were declined,” Noem said.
Jordan then asked whether that meant many of the individuals involved had been released back into communities.
“Many of those people are out on the street, is that fair to say?” Jordan asked.
“That’s correct,” Noem replied.
ICE detainers are requests asking state or local law enforcement agencies to hold individuals in their custody for up to 48 hours beyond their scheduled release so federal immigration officers can take them into custody for possible deportation proceedings, Newsmax reported.
Sanctuary jurisdictions typically limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement and may decline detainer requests unless a judicial warrant is provided.
Noem argued that honoring detainers allows immigration officers to take custody of individuals safely while they are already in local custody.
“When we have detainers that are honored, we can go into a courthouse, we can go into a jail or a prison and in a safe environment, take custody of that individual, take them to a detention center and remove them to their home country,” she said.
“When they don’t honor detainers, hundreds and hundreds of times, thousands of times across the country, those individuals reoffend, and what they’re doing by not honoring detainers is creating more victims.”
Republican members of the committee said the number highlights the effects of sanctuary policies that restrict local authorities from cooperating with federal immigration enforcement. They contend such policies undermine federal immigration law and may pose public safety risks by allowing individuals who could face deportation to be released instead of transferred to federal custody.
