New York county jails billed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) nearly $18.1 million between January 2025 and July 2026 for detaining immigrants, according to available records reviewed by New York Focus in a report published on October 26. The figure — yaani about 1.81 crore dollars — covers the period before New York passed a law banning counties from holding the agency's detainees.

Source: New York Focus

The records do not include the Nassau County Jail on Long Island, one of the largest ICE detention centres in the state. New York Focus said jail population data and ICE reimbursement rates suggest that facility alone billed ICE at least another $1.3 million since early 2025. The outlet said the county jails detained thousands of immigrants in total and were set to receive around $20 million in exchange for their help.

As one example, the report said the Broome County Jail housed around 50 immigrants during a peak month and charged ICE nearly $170,000 for that month.

The billing happened before New York moved to end the practice. Bolts reported that state lawmakers folded legislation into the state budget earlier this year barring localities from contracting with federal immigration agencies — restricting both participation in the 287(g) programme, which deputises local officers for some immigration functions, and county detention contracts under which ICE holds detainees in local jails in exchange for federal money.

Source: Bolts

Bolts said Orange County, whose jail had become a waystation in ICE's national detention network under a contract first entered in 2008, has become a test of the new law's aftermath, with the transfer of immigrant detainees out of the jail described as opaque.

WAMC reported on September 16 that Orange County had announced it would end its agreement to house immigration detainees without criminal charges in its jail, to comply with the new state law — the Local Cops, Local Crimes Act, which took effect on August 25. Sheriff Paul Arteta claimed the change leaves what he called a $10 million hole in the county budget, and said he had joined 14 other New York sheriffs in supporting a lawsuit challenging the law. Those figures and claims are the sheriff's, as reported by WAMC.

Source: WAMC

For immigrant families in New York — including the state's large Punjabi and South Asian communities — the records put a price on a system that advocates had criticised for years: local jails were being paid by the federal government to hold people for immigration enforcement, until the state banned the contracts.