Immigration detentions have more than doubled and deportations nearly quadrupled in Bartholomew and Jackson counties in the first 10 months after President Donald Trump returned to the White House.

From Jan. 20, 2025, to Oct. 14, 2025, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) took 107 people into custody in Bartholomew and Jackson counties, up from 48 during all of 2024, according to the Deportation Data Project, an effort led by a group of academics and lawyers who collect and post immigration enforcement data.

At least 79 people taken into ICE custody in Bartholomew and Jackson counties last year were deported, up from 21 the year before. As of Oct. 14, none of the individuals deported last year were sent to third countries.

The Deportation Data Project said it obtained the data from ICE that is current as of mid-October in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.

Notable shifts

The data shows some notable shifts in immigration enforcement in Bartholomew and Jackson counties over the past year.

During the first 10 months of the Trump administration, ICE increasingly took custody of individuals in Bartholomew and Jackson counties who had been accused — but not convicted — of crimes.

In 2024, half of the individuals taken into ICE custody in the two counties were classified as a “convicted criminal,” according to the data. From Jan. 20, 2025, to Oct. 14, 2025, that figure declined to 44%.

The rest of the individuals taken into custody were listed as having “pending criminal charges” or, in one case in 2024, “other immigration violator.”

Another notable shift in immigration enforcement in the two counties is the increased movement of detainees between facilities, the data shows.

In 2025, people taken into ICE custody were transferred between detention centers a median of four times, up from a median of two the year before. A total of 19 individuals were transferred between facilities more than five times in 2025, compared to just three individuals in 2024.

In one case, an individual from Guatemala who was taken into ICE custody in Jackson County in February 2025 was transferred nine times between detention centers in 2.5 months and then was deported.

Two other individuals from Guatemala taken into ICE custody in Jackson County last year were transferred between facilities six times within just nine days before being deported.

Almost all the individuals taken into ICE custody in the two counties in 2025 were from Latin America or the Caribbean, with 79% being Mexican or Guatemalan citizens, according to the data.

Those detained last year included 48 people from Mexico and 36 from Guatemala, along with seven from Honduras and four from Nicaragua. Smaller numbers came from India and Venezuela, with three each, as well as Poland, with two, and Colombia, Ecuador, Haiti and Ukraine, with one each.

Habeas corpus petitions

A federal judge in Indiana recently ordered ICE to release a Jackson County immigrant who had been detained for over four months despite an immigration judge’s order to release him on bond.

In late December, U.S. District Chief Judge James R. Sweeney II — a Trump appointee — ordered the immigrant, a 43-year-old from Guatemala, to be released within 48 hours, finding that ICE’s “refusal to honor the (immigration judge’s) bond determination is contrary to law and must be set aside,” according to federal court records.

In June, a Seymour police officer had pulled the individual over for allegedly driving 55 mph in a 30-mph zone, according to a probable cause affidavit filed in Jackson Superior Court 1. The officer issued him a misdemeanor citation for reckless driving, and he was released from the scene.

ICE took him into custody when he arrived at the courthouse in mid-July for his initial hearing and was taken to the Clay County Jail. In August, an immigration judge ordered him released on $7,500 bond, according to court records.

When ICE did not release him on bond, the detainee filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus, which is a legal process that allows a court to review whether a person is being unlawfully detained.

“ICE may not … detain (the individual) in defiance of (the immigration judge’s) bond order because it believes her interpretation of the law is wrong,” Sweeney states in an order dated Dec. 23 in which he granted the petition.

Two other federal judges have also recently granted petitions for a writ of habeas corpus, finding that ICE had violated federal law by continuing to detain immigrants without bond hearings after their arrests by Franklin police last year on allegations of driving without a license.

On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Tanya Walton Pratt ruled that a Peruvian immigrant who has been held by ICE since late November following a charge of driving without a license in Johnson County must either be granted a bond hearing or released.

Walton Pratt, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama, gave ICE until this coming Thursday to comply.

On Jan. 15, U.S. District Judge James Patrick Hanlon ruled that ICE was also unlawfully detaining without a bond hearing a Mexican immigrant arrested by Franklin police in December on a similar charge. Hanlon, a Trump appointee, ordered the agency to provide a bond hearing or release him from custody.

Those habeas corpus cases are not the only ones.

In 2025, 79 habeas corpus cases involving an “alien detainee” were filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, and another 40 cases have been filed so far within the first month of this year, according to federal court records.

By comparison, there had been a combined total of four such cases filed from 2020 to 2024.

Inmate holds increase

While at least one person was detained at a courthouse, nearly all individuals taken into ICE custody in Bartholomew and Jackson counties in 2024 and 2025 were being held in county jails after being arrested.

ICE can place an immigration “hold” or “detainer” on inmates who are deemed removable from the country. This allows jails to hold inmates who would be otherwise eligible for release for an additional 48 hours to give federal immigration authorities time to come pick them up.

For its part, the Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Office has been cooperating with ICE for some time, notifying immigration officials whenever someone who wasn’t born in the U.S. is booked into the Bartholomew County Jail.

However, if ICE does not take the individuals into custody within 48 hours, jail officials are required by law to release them.

In 2025, ICE placed 82 detainers on Bartholomew County inmates and took 70 of them into custody, according to the Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Office.

By comparison, ICE placed 68 detainers on Bartholomew County inmates and took 46 of them into custody from February to December 2024.

The Bartholomew County inmates taken into custody by ICE last year had been arrested and charged with a range of different crimes, including domestic battery, operating a vehicle while intoxicated, rape, possession of methamphetamine, operating a mother vehicle without ever receiving a license, among other charges.

It is currently unclear how many ICE detainees will be deported before their criminal cases are resolved, or if they will be required to complete any potential sentences in the United States prior to removal.
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