Methodology & Data Sources

Transparency about how we collect, process, and present ICE accountability data.

Data Sources

Court Listener

Federal court opinions, dockets, and RECAP documents related to ICE litigation.

Data Types

Court casesDocket entriesSettlement informationLegal opinions
DailyVisit Source

USASpending.gov

Official source for federal spending data, including ICE contractor payments.

Data Types

Contractor awardsAward amountsRecipient informationContract types
DailyVisit Source

Federal Register

Official journal of the federal government with DHS and ICE regulatory documents.

Data Types

Proposed rulesFinal rulesNoticesPolicy documents
DailyVisit Source

Data Collection Process

Automated Collection

  • Daily automated sync from all data sources via scheduled functions
  • Deduplication logic prevents double-counting of records
  • API authentication ensures access to complete datasets
  • Data stored in PostgreSQL database with row-level security

Data Processing

  • Settlement amounts extracted from court records and news sources
  • Contractor payments filtered by ICE as awarding agency
  • Court cases filtered by immigration-related keywords
  • All monetary values stored in USD without adjustment for inflation

Limitations & Caveats

  • Settlement amounts may be underreported as many settlements are confidential
  • Court case data depends on what is publicly available in federal court records
  • Contractor data only includes awards above reporting thresholds
  • Historical data may be incomplete for years prior to 2015
  • Some data may have a delay of 24-48 hours from source updates

How to Cite This Data

If you use data from ICE Audit in your research, journalism, or other work, please cite us using one of the following formats:

APA
ICE Audit. (2026). ICE spending and accountability data [Data set]. Retrieved from https://iceaudit.com/data
MLA
ICE Audit. "ICE Spending and Accountability Data." ICE Audit, 2026, iceaudit.com/data.
Chicago
ICE Audit. "ICE Spending and Accountability Data." Accessed [date]. https://iceaudit.com/data.

Data Ethics

ICE Audit is committed to responsible data practices:

  • No personal dossiers: We do not compile or publish personal information about individuals.
  • Public data only: All data comes from publicly available government sources.
  • Transparency: Our methodology is fully documented and our data is exportable.
  • No surveillance: We do not track or surveil any individuals or groups.

Have questions about our data or methodology?

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