GAO reports sharp declines in noncitizen incarcerations and $9 billion cost

The Government Accountability Office's latest criminal-justice review shows a 44 percent drop in the number of noncitizens incarcerated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) between fiscal year 2017 and fiscal year 2024, falling from approximately 36,300 to about 20,300 individuals. Immigration-related offenses accounted for more than half of the convictions, while drug-related offenses comprised roughly 30 percent.

During the same period, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement removed approximately 84,800 noncitizens - 76 percent of the 111,200 who completed at least one term of BOP incarceration - from the United States, as of December 2025. The report notes that noncitizens, including those with lawful status, continue to be subject to removal after serving federal sentences.

State and local data remain fragmented, but the GAO analysis of the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP) indicates that SCAAP-eligible incarcerations fell 43 percent between state fiscal year 2016 and state fiscal year 2022, declining from roughly 128,000 to about 73,500. The five state prison systems with the highest SCAAP-eligible counts housed noncitizens convicted of offenses ranging from sex crimes and homicide to drug offenses.

The Department of Justice's expenditures on noncitizen incarceration exceeded $9 billion for fiscal years 2016 through 2023. Roughly $8 billion of that total funded BOP incarcerations, while about $1.44 billion covered SCAAP reimbursements to states and localities for fiscal years 2016 through 2022. The GAO cautions that these figures do not include costs borne by jurisdictions that did not receive federal reimbursement, and it underscores the absence of comprehensive citizenship data for state and local facilities.