SALT LAKE CITY — Since Inauguration Day, the jails in Utah’s two most populous counties have been keeping more immigrants.
Both the Salt Lake and Utah county jails queried their record systems at the request of FOX 13 News to determine the number of recent detainers or holds placed on inmates by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.
Salt Lake County explained that ICE typically first places a detainer on an inmate suspected of not being a citizen so federal agents can investigate his or her status. Then ICE may convert the detainer into the more-permanent hold.
From Jan. 20 to March 18, 2024, the Salt Lake County jail had 180 immigration detainers and 115 immigration holds. Since President Donald Trump returned to office through March 18 of this year, there were 196 immigration detainers and 138 holds at the Salt Lake County jail.
The Utah County jail reported its figures differently. It provided monthly immigration detainers for 2024 and thus far in 2025. Those numbers showed big jumps in detainers for the months of January and February compared to the year before.
The Utah County jail provided the numbers in mid-March. And already the March 2025 figures were as many as they were in March 2024.
Utah County Jail ICE detainers:
| 2024 | 2025 | |
| January | 7 | 40 |
| February | 16 | 23 |
| March | 20 | 25 (through mid-month) |
“For us in the jail, it's pretty much always been business as usual,” said Sgt. Ray Ormond, a spokesman for the Utah County Sheriff’s Office. “We we've done our jobs the same way for as long as I can remember my career. There's just been more of a response back on the federal level to us notifying them of potential issues that they may want to investigate and look into.”
Utah immigration attorney Sergio Garcia said, these days, an immigration hold means a ride to the ICE detention center in Las Vegas.
Whereas ICE used to be more concerned with immigrants who committed violent offenses or had been ordered by a judge to leave the country, the recently-passed Laken Riley Act has meant more immigrants are detained once they’re booked into jail and for lesser offenses. Even simple retail theft, Garcia said, can mean removal from the country.
“Even if they never get charged, eventually ICE would pick them up, they would take them to the detention center,” Garcia said. “And when we would file a bond request with the immigration judge, they deny it and say, ‘Well, we have no jurisdiction because he’s accused of this crime.’”
The Utah Department of Corrections, too, showed a slight increase in ICE detainers on inmates in the state’s prison system. While in both January 2024 and 2025, ICE put detainers on three inmates, the figures increased in February (two in 2024; nine in 2025) and March (two in 2024; five as of March 18, 2025).
ICE has not provided any statewide data. Those numbers could show both how many jail inmates were detained or held but also how many immigrants were arrested from homes, businesses and communities.