ACLU-KY: Data shows 300% increase in ICE detainer requests after Louisville policy change

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) says those “detainer requests” ask jails to notify the federal government as early as possible before they release an immigrant, and hold them 48 hours beyond the time they would normally release those people.

Using data from the Deportation Data Project, ACLU-KY said that between Aug. 1, 2025, to March 1, 2026, a seven-month period, ICE filed 344 detainer requests, or an average of 49.1 requests per month. From Jan. 1, 2024 to Aug. 1, 2025, a 19-month span, ICE made 326 requests, which averaged 17.2 per month. 

Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg, who is currently seeking reelection, announced last summer the city would reinstate a 48-hour hold for “inmates who are arrested for crimes, are booked in our jail and are subject to deportation notices” to allow federal officers time to take custody of those inmates. The move came after the Trump administration called Louisville a “sanctuary city” for not having the hold policy and threatened its federal funding. ACLU-KY had asked the city to reconsider the policy at the time. 

“Louisville residents were told this would be a limited policy affecting a relatively small number of people. The federal government’s own data show something very different,” said Amber Duke, executive director of the ACLU-KY in a Thursday statement. “This policy has made Louisville’s jail a far more direct pathway into federal immigration detention and removal. That is especially troubling when we are talking about an already overcrowded jail where 23 people have died since May 2021.”

In light of the recent findings, ACLU-KY is asking Greenberg to reverse the 48-hour policy and provide a public account of: 

• The number of ICE detainers Louisville has received and honored.
• The number of people held beyond their scheduled release
• The number transferred into ICE custody
• The additional jail time created by the policy
• The financial cost of the policy to Louisville taxpayers.

ACLU-KY also found ICE had requested detainer holds for 311 people between August 2025 to March 2026, and 286 of those people were booked into ICE detention. Plus, 157 of those people were removed from the U.S. by ICE. 

Per the ACLU, the data said that since the city policy change, the average number of monthly ICE detention stints increased by about 350% and the average number of monthly non-custodial ICE arrests increased by more than 150%. 

Across Kentucky, 10 jails hold immigration detainees. According to data from Relevant Research, about 1,200 people are in a county jail on behalf of ICE. About 71% of them, or 863 people, are in the non-criminal population. 

ICE arrests in Louisville have made headlines in recent weeks. Sarafinah Bukirwa, who was detained at the Louisville airport before a flight, was released by a federal judge after her family and Democratic U.S. Rep. Morgan McGarvey said she was not receiving adequate medical care for sickle cell anemia. Online records did not list a clear charge for Bukirwa at the time. 

This is a developing story.