Introduction

Every day, families in our community are affected by immigration enforcement and detention. The St. Louis Rapid Response Hotline grew out of the need for access to accessible, compassionate support in times of crisis. Working in coalition with community partners, we connect impacted individuals to direct resources, help navigate and explain complex systems, facilitate communication with detained loved ones, and provide a powerful witness to these injustices.

Since late January 2025, we have had contact with hundreds of community members, detained immigrants and their loved ones, coworkers and concerned friends. A majority of these calls took place after a detention. With limited public data provided by immigration enforcement agencies themselves (and the local police departments often involved in this enforcement), analyzing our own data and sharing it publicly is an important aspect of the Hotline’s work.

To facilitate public understanding of the evolving landscape of immigration enforcement, Ashrei will publish monthly updates utilizing the data we collect. This data is de-identified and provides a glimpse into what immigration enforcement looks like in our region. As with all data, the information on the Dashboard represents a specific set of facts about a specific time period; this data must be considered together with other sources of data to have a more robust understanding and analysis of trends in the region. It is also important to note that trained Hotline volunteers are recording what callers and detained people report, which may not always be fully precise, since it's based on individual recollection rather than an official record.

The Data

When the Hotline receives a call from a member of the public, they receive two options: 1) to report suspected immigration enforcement activity that they have witnessed, and 2) for immediate assistance they can speak to a bilingual volunteer Hotline Operator.

Hotline Operators provide support in a variety of ways, including: locating and communicating with detained loved ones; providing one-time, free legal consultation for people detained by ICE; support with impounded vehicles; facilitating powers of attorney and passports for US citizen children of detained immigrants; general legal information; and orientation and referrals to other resources and services in the region. Our team of volunteers works to meet the needs addressed in our calls. No names, dates of birth, A numbers, or phone numbers are ever included in what we publish — only aggregate counts and categories. We hold confidentiality as a very serious standard in this work.

Abide in Love, a partner organization with several affiliates in Missouri, Oklahoma and Ohio, is a primary partner in the work of the Hotline. Many Abide in Love affiliates focus their efforts on initiating and maintaining direct contacts with people in ICE custody held in jails across Missouri. Through intentional collaboration and resource sharing, Abide in Love partners also make referrals to the Hotline for additional support.

Not all detentions in Missouri are captured by the STL Rapid Response Hotline team. However, by speaking directly with detained immigrants and their loved ones, we gather information and insight that helps us shed light on crucial questions: Who is being detained? Where is detention happening in our region? How are people ending up in ICE custody? What is the role of local law enforcement in these detentions? What are the conditions in ICE’s contracted detention centers in Missouri? How is immigration enforcement impacting our region?

Understanding these patterns offers a more complex analysis of the impacts of immigration enforcement in the region and informs our collective strategies to advocate for the rights and dignity of all people who call Missouri home.

Questions & Feedback

We welcome questions about this data and the Dashboard, and we take data-quality concerns seriously. We are continuously learning and improving the quality of our data, and will continue to be transparent about errors, revisions or modifications. If something looks wrong to you, please reach out to Ashrei’s Executive Director, Sara Ruiz (sara@ashreifoundation.org). Ashrei is a small, largely volunteer-run organization, and we're not always able to respond to requests for custom analysis, additional data cuts, or research support beyond what's already published here. Thank you for understanding.

Data Codebook

In order to display the data most concisely, we may make minor adjustments each time we pull the data. The following are notes and details specific to each field included in the data used for these reports.

• Referral Types

  • Definition:

    • Category of the primary reason someone contacted the Hotline 

  • Options:

    • Someone I know was detained; direct contact with detainee/DIVA; Past ICE/law enforcement activity; Anti-immigrant incident not involving law enforcement; Anti-immigrant/Hostile caller; Questions/General Support; Something else)

    • “Direct contact with detainee” indicates that partners at one of the Abide in Love affiliates initiated the contact with the Hotline 

    • DIVA refers to the free, one-time legal consultation that hotline volunteers can provide to people held in ICE custody in Missouri (specifically, this abbreviation is drawn from the title of this volunteer role - Detained Intake Volunteer Attorney - but is used to describe or reference the entire consult as well)

  • Categories for Reporting: 

    • “Someone I know was detained” and “direct contact with detainee/DIVA” have been combined as “post-detention”

    • Questions/General Support is its own category

    • Other categories combined under “Other”

  • Coverage: 

    • Collected for every referral since consistent data collection began in July 2025

• Services Requested

  • Definition:

    • Describes the services requested by each contact

    • Most callers seek more than one form of support and are counted for both/all, when available

  • Options:

    • Detained Intake Volunteer Attorney; Locator Support; Telecomm Navigation support; Other Resource Referral/Something Else; Power of Attorney/U.S. Passport of a Child; Impound Support; No Additional Services Needed

  • Categories for Reporting:

    • All response options are reported individually; none are combined

  • Coverage:

    • Data collection began in July 2025; about 97% of referrals in that window have this field recorded, and about 90% across the full reporting period (January 2025 - present)

• Referrals by Month

  • Definition:

    • Describes the number of new contacts (called referrals in the database) by month

    • A referral in the database is focused on the subject of the call/request, which is most often the name of a person who is detained

    • If a call is about a non-detained issue, the primary subject of the question/issue requiring support becomes the record

    • If more than one individual calls about the same person, those are tracked as fields on the primary referral record and are not reflected in the count of referrals by month

    • Each referral is one contact to the Hotline, not one person; a small number of referrals may reflect repeat contact about the same individual (though such erroneous duplicates are corrected on an on-going basis). Based on available checks, as of 8/31/26, we estimate this affects less than 1% of records.

  • Responses: N/A

  • Categories for Reporting: N/A

  • Coverage:

    • Referral records exist from January 2025 onward, but consistent data collection began in July 2025; consider July 2025 forward as the most reliable series

    • 72 referrals took place before referral data collection was fully engaged in July 2025

• Nature of Arrest

  • Definition:

    • Describes the context in which someone came into ICE custody

  • Responses:

    • Traffic Stop; Car Accident; ICE check-in; ISAP check-in; Court (Immigration/Traffic/Other); Home; Work; Questioned in Public; Transfer from another facility; Other; Unknown

  • Categories for Reporting:

    • “Traffic Stop” and “Car Accident” were combined under “Traffic Stop”

    • “ICE Check-in” and “ISAP Check-in” were combined to “ICE/ISAP Check-in”

    • “Home” and “Work” are left as-is

    • Remaining fields are aggregated and reported with “Other”

  • Coverage: 

    • Collected for all detention-related referrals since July 2025

    • Completeness has improved substantially over time, from roughly 32% in October 2025 to 100% by August 2026, and stands at about 70% across the full period to date

• ICE Detentions by Arresting Agency

  • Definition:

    • Describes the agency that made the initial arrest that led to detention in ICE custody

  • Responses:

    • ICE; Police; US Marshalls; Other

  • Categories for Reporting:

    • “US Marshalls” has been combined with “Other” and reported as “Other”

  • Coverage:

    • Collected for all detention-related referrals since July 2025; approximately 70% complete across the full period (January 2025 - present)

• Location of Initial Apprehension, by Municipality

  • Definition:

    • Describes the location of arrest by municipality, when available

    • Hotline volunteers inquire about the specific location where an arrest or apprehension occurred. This information primarily comes from either the non-detained loved one who calls the Hotline or during the detained intake when our volunteers speak directly with the detained person during a legal consultation. 

    • This field describes a geographic location, not a specific police department or arresting agency.

    • Though volunteers do their best to distinguish between initial and “in the course of” detention locations, a reported location can reflect either where an arrest happened or where someone was later held (ex, at a county facility located in that municipality).

  • Responses:

    • All municipalities in St. Louis County and St. Charles County are available; all St. Louis area counties are available as “[name] county, other”; Missouri and adjacent states are available as “[state_name], other”

    • We seek the most specific detail available, so the available responses include municipal, county, region and state descriptors

    • The localities are not “stacked”; so if an arrest was made in Ballwin, and reported to the Hotline as Ballwin, then only “Ballwin” is selected as the locality (and not also “St. Louis County, other” or “Missouri, other”). Only the most narrow/specific locality is collected.

  • Categories for Reporting:

    • This chart presents only the data for which the location was known a municipality; it does not include apprehensions where municipality was not known or not reported

  • Coverage:

    • Consistently collected since December 2025

    • About 93% of detentions from December 2025 to present have a location recorded

    • Earlier records are less likely to include this level of detail, which brings the full-period figure down to roughly 67%; as such, there is a data gap not a comparable baseline prior to December 2025

• Location of Initial Apprehension, by County or State

  • Definition:

    • Describes the location of arrest by county or state, when available

    • Some referrals do not provide city/municipality-level data, but do establish a county or state of apprehension

    • Only the most narrow/specific locality is collected for each referral

  • Responses:

    • All municipalities in St. Louis County and St. Charles County are available; all St. Louis area counties are available as “[name] county, other”; Missouri and adjacent states are available as “[state_name], other”

    • We seek the most specific detail available, so the available responses include municipal, county, region and state descriptors

    • The localities are not “stacked”; so if an arrest was made in Ballwin, and reported to the Hotline as Ballwin, then only “Ballwin” is selected as the locality (and not also “St. Louis County, other” or “Missouri, other”). Only the most narrow/specific locality is collected.

  • Categories for Reporting:

    • Municipal data has been consolidated and aggregated into the corresponding county. 

    • Missouri and Illinois counties, when known, are not rolled into statewide reporting.

  • Coverage: 

    • Same basis as the municipality chart above; data has been consistently collected since December 2025

    • Approximately 93% complete since December 2025; roughly 67% across the full period

• Detainee Countries of Origin

  • Definition:

    • Describes the country of birth for a detained person

  • Responses:

    • All countries recognized by the United Nations, as well as any recognized colonies or territories; a “stateless” option also exists

    • We do not currently have a way to track multiple citizenships; as such, an individual who reports having citizenship in more than one country may be reported as two countries of origin rather than just one

  • Categories for Reporting:

    • All response options are reported individually; none are combined

  • Coverage: Collected since July 2025; about 96% of detentions have this recorded since then, and about 90% across the full period

• Ages of Detained Individuals

  • Definition:

    • Age of detained individual, ascertained by calculation from date of birth and call date

  • Responses: N/A

  • Categories for Reporting:

    • Age categories are defined as: Minor (under 18); Young Adult (18-24); Adult (25-59); Older Adult (60+)

  • Coverage:

    • This is one of the harder details to collect during a crisis call

    • Roughly 54% of detentions across the full period have a usable age; that rises to about 68% looking at data from January 2026 forward

    • As of the last check (8/31/26), no minors (under 18) had been reported detained to the Hotline, and Missouri currently has no capacity to detain juveniles in ICE custody — so this population is likely underrepresented in the data (they'd typically be transferred out of state immediately, and unlikely to generate a detention that would be reflected in Hotline data)

revisions

• 6/10/26: The April and May monthly reports were updated to correct an incorrectly labeled field in the “Nature of Arrests by Location” graphics; “work” was changed to “Traffic Stop”, which is the correct label for the values indicated. The current file names end in v2 for May and April.

• 6/12/26: Charts “Referral Types”; “Services Requested”, “Country of Origin”, and “Detainees by Country of Origin” previously listed “Data from 7/1/25 - 5/31/26”. This date range was incorrect and should have read “Data from 1/27/25 - 5/31/26”. It has been corrected.

Publication notes

• May (as of 5/31/26)

  • Nature of arrest was reported in 484 of 762 detentions overall, and was reported in 50 of 76 detentions reported to the hotline in May 2026

  • Arresting agency was reported in 477 of 762 detentions overall; arresting agency was reported in 57 of 76 detentions documented by the Hotline in April 2026

  • Location at the municipality/city level was reported in 162 of 762 total detentions overall, and was reported in 46 of 76 total detentions documented by the Hotline in May 2026

  • Some location was reported for 287 of 762 detentions reported to the Hotline

  • Country of origin was reported in 687 of 762 detentions, and was reported in 74 of 76 detentions documented by the Hotline in May

  • No Minors (under 18) were reported as detained to the hotline during this time

• April (as of 5/31/26)

  • Arresting Agency was reported in 67 of 94 detentions documented by the Hotline in April 2026

  • Location of initial apprehension was reported in 78 of 94 detentions documented by the Hotline in April 2026

  • Country of origin was reported for all detentions documented by the Hotline in April 2026

  • Age was reported in 59 of 94 detentions reported to the hotline in April 2026

  • Nature of arrest was reported in 69 of 94 detentions reported to the hotline in April 2026