Kentucky ICE detentions grow as public transparency shrinks

By McKenna Horsley | Kentucky Lantern

The num­ber of fed­er­al immi­gra­tion detainees in Kentucky jails is grow­ing dra­mat­i­cal­ly, but the pub­lic knows less and less about them, includ­ing whether or not they have crim­i­nal records, accord­ing to new reports on fed­er­al efforts to deport more people.

Some infor­ma­tion on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainees in Kentucky jails is hard to find, a new report from the League of Women Voters of Kentucky says.

The League’s analy­sis found a few online ros­ters at Kentucky jails that house fed­er­al immi­gra­tion detainees are unclear on the local crimes charged or sta­tus of the detainee. Three do not list peo­ple who are in ICE custody.

“Kentucky jails belong to us, the peo­ple of Kentucky, so we should know how immi­grants are being treat­ed,” wrote League President Jennifer Jackson in a let­ter about the report. “The peo­ple held there are human beings, so Kentuckians should insist on their human rights.”

The League, a group that has been track­ing ICE data statewide for a few months, also said in the lat­est analy­sis a dozen jails across Kentucky are being paid to house ICE detainees and most do not have a crim­i­nal con­vic­tion; more than 60 jails in the state have vol­un­tar­i­ly placed ICE holds on peo­ple arrest­ed local­ly; most jails that pro­vide ICE cus­tody are over­crowd­ed because of fed­er­al roles; and two jails and more than 50 law enforce­ment agen­cies have part­ner­ships with ICE.

In November, about 12 local police agen­cies and three jails in Kentucky had part­ner­ships with ICE under287(g) agree­ments. Two bills were filed in the2026 leg­isla­tive ses­sion to direct Kentucky State Police or local law enforce­ment agen­cies to enter such ICE agree­ments, but they did not get floor votes.

According to data from Relevant Research, Kentucky jails are hous­ing about 1,200 peo­ple for ICE as of July.

Last week, pro­gres­sive think tank Kentucky Center for Economic Policy said in an analy­sis that arrests through the 287(g) agree­ments have grown in recent months. In November 2025, there was one arrest in Kentucky through the agree­ment pro­gram. In July 2026, there were 70.

After its report, the League of Women Voters sent let­ters to lead­ers in coun­ties with the great­est par­tic­i­pa­tion in ICE deten­tion: Boone, Bourbon, Campbell, Christian, Daviess, Fayette, Grayson, Hopkins, Jefferson, Kenton, Laurel, Oldham and Woodford. Among the group’s requests were pro­vid­ing more ful­ly trans­par­ent inmate lists and evi­dence about the treat­ment of detainees.

The full analy­sis said jails in Bourbon, Boone, Grayson, Hopkins, Laurel and Oldham coun­ties include ICE detainees in their ros­ter list­ings. Those peo­ple can be iden­ti­fied by an immi­gra­tion charge list­ed or that the arrest­ing offi­cer or agency is list­ed as ICE, Immigration or the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

The League said Campbell, Christian and Kenton coun­ties do not list peo­ple there in ICE cus­tody. Daviess County “appears to include peo­ple in ICE cus­tody in its pub­lic ros­ter, but not in a way that makes that sta­tus clear, as it may include peo­ple arrest­ed by oth­er fed­er­al agents, like U.S. Marshals. Fayette and Woodford coun­ties’ “approach­es are unclear to the League.”

Matt Mudd, a spokesper­son for Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg, said Louisville Metro Department of Corrections “does not house indi­vid­u­als who are in ICE cus­tody,” but it does hon­or detain­er requests from ICE to hold peo­ple 48 hours beyond their sched­uled release for local offens­es. The American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky crit­i­cized the prac­tice in August, say­ing it reviewed data that showed a near­ly 300% increase in the aver­age num­ber of month­ly detain­er requests since the city’s pol­i­cy change last year. Mudd said the cost for the holds “is neg­li­gi­ble, and LMDC has not increased its bud­get to accom­mo­date these holds.”

“To pro­tect indi­vid­ual infor­ma­tion, names of those sub­ject to an ICE detain­er are not released. Furthermore, infor­ma­tion relat­ed to immi­gra­tion detain­ers is sub­ject to con­fi­den­tial­i­ty require­ments of fed­er­al law. The individual’s attor­ney may request addi­tion­al infor­ma­tion in per­son with prop­er iden­ti­fi­ca­tion while in per­son at LMDC,” Mudd added. “However, all local charges for indi­vid­u­als in cus­tody at LMDC are avail­able on a search­able pub­lic web­site that shows all allow­able information.”

Mudd also referred to the state law gov­ern­ing con­di­tions for jails, such as the require­ment to pro­vide inmates three nutri­tious meals a day to inmates and health and men­tal health eval­u­a­tions and treatment.

ICE deten­tion in Kentucky has made head­lines in recent months. U.S. Rep. Morgan McGarvey, a Democrat who rep­re­sents Kentucky’s 3^rd Congressional District, joined two of his House col­leagues to vis­it the Campbell County jail in July to review con­di­tions for ICE detainees there.

“Trump and Republicans in Congress gave ICE bil­lions in tax­pay­er mon­ey to tar­get and ter­ror­ize immi­grants in our com­mu­ni­ties,” McGarvey said in a Wednesday state­ment to the Kentucky Lantern. “At a bare min­i­mum, we as tax­pay­ers deserve trans­paren­cy about where our neigh­bors are being tak­en and how they’re being treated.”

McGarvey joined fam­i­ly mem­bers of a Louisville woman, Sarafinah Bukirwa, who was detained by ICE in call­ing for bet­ter med­ical care for her while she was in the Grayson County Detention Center in July. Bukirwa, who has sick­le cell ane­mia, was not get­ting all of her med­ica­tions, her broth­er said, but the jail­er denied the claim. Bukirwa was lat­er released in August by a fed­er­al judge and after her fam­i­ly paid her bond.

Nationwide, more than 30 peo­ple have died in ICE cus­tody since October and the fatal­i­ty rate for ICE cus­tody has reached a 22-year high in the open­ing months of the fis­cal year.