ProPublica investigation revealed Pinellas County Jail systematically rebooked immigrant detainees to evade 72-hour ICE hold limit

On August 27, 2026, a ProPublica investigation revealed that Pinellas County Jail in Clearwater, Florida had systematically released and re-admitted immigrant detainees held on civil ICE detainers at regular 72-hour intervals -- "rebooking" them under new booking numbers to evade the legal limit on how long county jails may hold people for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ProPublica identified the pattern by obtaining an unredacted copy of the jail's own booking logs from an anonymous source and cross-checking it against federal detention data from the Deportation Data Project, after the jail refused to release the underlying logs itself, citing federal regulations that shield jail records. The analysis found Pinellas rebooked at least 174 immigrants two or more times between July 2025 and July 2026 -- a volume that, along with Orange County, Florida, was unmatched nationally; no other jail in the country rebooked more than 10 people over the same period.

Soumia Bensalah, a French-Moroccan woman with a pending U.S. green-card application, was shackled and driven to an ICE hold room and back to the jail five times in December 2025, each cycle beginning just before her 72-hour clock expired; she was ultimately transferred to ICE detention and deported to France. A separate, unnamed Mexican woman was rebooked into the jail ten times over the same period ProPublica examined, spending a cumulative 26 days in custody before being released on a $2,000 bond. Eight legal experts told ProPublica that rebookings like these typically happen in secret specifically to circumvent federal detention-standard requirements, including medical screening and confidential legal access; Stanford law professor Jennifer Chacón said "there's no argument that this is a lawful detention."

A DHS spokesperson defended the practice, telling ProPublica that "ICE is NOT breaking any laws by making custody determinations based on bed space and ensuring detainees' presence for immigration proceedings or removal from the United States." Pinellas County Sheriff's Office spokesperson Corporal Jamie Miller told ProPublica the facility holds people for ICE "for only up to 72 hours before releasing them" -- a characterization ProPublica's own data contradicts. ProPublica's analysis found Pinellas's rebookings appeared to stop in July 2026, though single-stay detentions exceeding 72 hours climbed in the same period.