The immigrants detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement hailed from 177 countries in the list provided to The Associated Press. Fewer than half had any kind of criminal conviction; more than 400 had spent a year or longer incarcerated. Here's a look at three long-term detainee cases:
NAME: SARJINA EMY
AGE: 20
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Bangladesh
LENGTH OF TIME IN U.S.: 15 years
LENGTH OF TIME IN CUSTODY: one year, eight months
HOW SHE GOT THERE: Emy's parents brought her and two older brothers to the United States from Bangladesh in 1993. They applied for asylum as a family because her father had been active in a political party hated by the regime.
The family's initial asylum application was denied. But, said Emy's attorney Petia Vimitrova Knowles, based on the advice of a prior attorney, they stayed and applied for a permanent labor certificate, which the Department of Labor granted.
They purchased a house and a gas station in Orlando, all the while assuming the labor certificate cleared up the old deportation order, her attorney says. They used their real home address on documents sent to the government.
While the family waited for green cards they'd been told would be arriving soon, Emy, an honors student in high school, was encouraged by her guidance counselor to apply for a college scholarship.
Instead, ICE arrived at Emy's home at dawn on June 27, 2007, and arrested the entire family.
Emy's parents have since been deported. She remained locked up while appealing her case, but agreed to be deported Feb. 18.
QUOTE: "I keep saying, 'What have I done?' and they say, 'Well, your father ...' I understand what my father did, but what did I do? I've never seen a judge. ... No one knows who I am or what I've been through."
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NAME: AHMAD AL-SHRMANY
AGE: 34
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Iraq, granted asylum in Canada
LENGTH OF TIME IN U.S.: five years
LENGTH OF TIME IN CUSTODY: one year, four months
HOW HE GOT THERE: Al-Shrmany fled Iraq at 17 in 1991 after the first Gulf War. He escaped to Jordan after his father and two older brothers were killed by members of Saddam Hussein's regime.
But in Jordan, he said, he felt discriminated against, so he traveled to Syria and then Canada, receiving asylum status there in 1999. He entered the U.S. on a tourist visa in 2003 to visit friends, eventually working at Fort Campbell under a false name with soldiers readying for deployment to Iraq. He entered a Muslim marriage with a woman whose family had emigrated from Iraq.
He was working at a Fort Worth, Texas, convenience store seven days a week when police stopped him in the parking lot in September 2007 and asked to see his driver's license, he said. He told them he didn't have one and showed them copies of his paperwork from Canada. Police took him downtown, and ICE showed up 15 minutes later.
Al-Shrmany agreed in February 2008 to be deported, but despite numerous promises from three different deportation officers, he remained locked up in Houston until several days after he talked to a reporter _ a meeting ICE officials tried to stop less than an hour before its scheduled time.
QUOTE: "I don't think I did something to get punishment (this) bad. I'm a human, too."
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NAME: RAYMOND SOEOTH
AGE: 41
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Indonesia
LENGTH OF TIME IN U.S.: 10 years
LENGTH OF TIME IN CUSTODY: two years, three months
HOW HE GOT THERE: Soeoth, a Pentecostal minister, fled Indonesia as violence against Christians in the Muslim-majority country was growing.
He and his wife applied for asylum in the U.S., and he began working with a church in San Bernardino, California. They opened a corner store to support themselves.
His asylum claim was denied and he was arrested in September 2004.
Several months into his detention, he was told he would be boarding a plane to Indonesia. Soeoth did not intend to fight, but he asked to call his wife. He wanted her to bring clothes and money before ICE sent him to a country he hadn't seen in years.
Instead, several officers came armed with hypodermic needles.
"I ask, 'I'm doing bad or what? I'm ready to go.' I'm about ready to cry. Suddenly, they grabbed my hands, my leg and forced me to the bench and give me an injection," he said.
Weak and groggy, he was hallucinating at the airport but was told his paperwork wasn't in order and was returned to the detention center in Los Angeles. There, he eventually met another immigrant similarly injected with high-power psychotropic drugs and sedatives; they found a lawyer who filed a class-action suit on their behalf.
Soeoth stayed in ICE custody until the case was settled. The agency agreed not to forcibly inject immigrants with psychotropic drugs without a court order and Soeoth was allowed to stay in the country for at least two years, possibly longer if ICE officials agree.
QUOTE: "(I) want to stay in this country. I love this country. I want to follow the rules."
