ICE is operating 170 unofficial detention centers in the US, including four in Arizona

Four unofficial and undisclosed long-term detention sites have been operating in Arizona, with some detainees spending over three months in “hold rooms” that are held to different standards than official detention facilities.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is operating a network of 170 unofficial and undisclosed long-term detention sites around the country that are held to different standards than the agency’s official detention facilities, including four located across Arizona in Phoenix, Mesa, Tucson, and Yuma.  

Data obtained by the Colorado Times Recorder with a Freedom of Information Act request found that the federal agency operates “hold rooms,” which have dramatically expanded in use since President Donald Trump returned to office in 2025, with more than 140,000 detainees held in them between January and October of last year, according to federal data obtained by the Deportation Data Project and analyzed by the Colorado Times Recorder.  

The hold rooms are used as temporary facilities to house detainees awaiting transport to official detention centers. They are held to different standards than the agency’s official detention facilities and not permitted to contain beds, and are not required to contain toilets.

A hold room in Phoenix held the second most children of any in the nation during the period covered by the data, with nearly 750 children detained in a federal building on North Central Avenue, according to the Colorado Times Recorder.

Until June 2025, the time limit on hold room detentions was 12 hours, but the Trump administration upped the limit to 72 hours soon after Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Advisor Stephen Miller and then-DHS Secretary Kristi Noem ordered ICE to triple its arrest quota to 3,000 per day. 

Since then, federal data shows thousands of violations of the 72-hour rule, including many stays lasting weeks or months at a time, according to the Colorado Times Recorder.

READ MORE: Arizonans are carrying more documents to prove citizenship to avoid detention

The majority of the 170 facilities are located in ICE field offices or suboffices, where immigrants often report for appointments with immigration authorities. These offices are not disclosed in ICE records or elsewhere as long-term detention facilities, even though data analyzed by the Colorado Times Recorder shows these offices hold detainees for weeks at a time. 

Of the 170 facilities, 37 held detainees for longer than a month, and an ICE field office in Phoenix held some detainees for over three months. 

The number of detentions exceeding 72 hours rose from 281 in former President Joe Biden’s final 16 months in office to 5,011 in the first nine and a half months of Trump’s second term, with no available information on detention patterns over the past five months, since October 2025, according to the Colorado Times Recorder.  

Where are the hold rooms in Arizona and who has been held in them? 

• Yuma Holdroom, 3911 S Pico Ave., Yuma, AZ 85365
  • 336 total detainees, 12 children, longest stay of over 64 hours. 
• Tucson Ins Hold Room, 6431 South Country Club Road, Tucson, AZ 85706
  • 1,299 total detainees, 6 children, 2 seniors, longest stay of nearly 20 hours. 
• Phoenix Dist Office, 2035 N. Central Avenue, Phoenix, AZ 85004
  • 9,019 total detainees, 749 children, 12 seniors, longest stay of over 95 days.
• Az Rem Op Coord Center (Arocc), 6335 South Downwind, Suite 104, Mesa, AZ 85212
  • 7,918 total detainees, 2 children, 16 seniors, longest stay of over 50 days.