A Steady Rise in Immigrants, Revenue at Orange County Jail

The jail in Orange County, N.Y., is seeing an increase in immigrant detainees and revenue through its contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, though the spike is not nearly as significant as at three jails in New Jersey. 

Records provided to WNYC in response to a request for public documents indicate that an average of 237 detainees were held at the jail in Goshen through the first seven months of the year, compared to 213 during the same period in 2016.

President Trump came into office and instituted a zero tolerance policy toward immigration violations, leading to an increase in arrests and detentions nationwide. The Orange County Correctional Facility is one of five in the region that holds immigrants as they await hearings or deportation, bringing the county an average of $720,000 a month through July, a 5.5 percent increase over the same period in 2016. 

The jail houses immigrants picked up in New York, as do the Hudson and Bergen County jails in New Jersey. Those two jails — plus the Essex County Correctional Facility and the privately-run Elizabeth Contract Detention Center — house far more ICE detainees.

The number of detained immigrants in New Jersey, and the corresponding revenue for county coffers, has skyrocketed under Trump, as WNYC previously reported.