Nonviolent offenses made up the majority of the charges for 44 arrestees with unauthorized or unknown citizenship held in Hamilton County Jail in July.
The largest three categories were traffic violations, license/registration issues and DUIs, according to new data from the Sheriff’s Office.
The Sheriff’s Office on Thursday released information on the number of people it reported to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, their nationalities and their charges. The Sheriff’s Office called it the first wave of monthly updates on immigrant bookings.
In July, the Sheriff’s Office released 37 unauthorized immigrants to ICE, and 35 were placed on an ICE hold. While some individuals may overlap between those categories, the Sheriff’s Office said, those figures do not represent the same group of people as timing, case outcomes and ICE determinations can cause counts to fluctuate across different months.
July 2025 unauthorized immigrant charges
Some arrestees may have multiple charges.
— Traffic violations: 37
— License/registration: 31
— DUI: 27
— Substance-related: 15
— Open container law: 8
— Obstruction/compliance: 6
— Domestic assault: 5
— Child neglect: 5
— Reckless conduct: 4
— Property crime: 3
— US Marshall hold: 2
— Robbery: 1
— Conspiracy to transport: 1
Source: Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office
Of the arrestees with known nationalities, most were from Guatemala or Mexico, but two were from Honduras and there was one each from El Salvador, Colombia and Canada. The data said it costs about $92 to house each inmate per day.
(READ MORE: Participation in ICE agreements mixed among rural Tennessee sheriffs)
The data was compiled from multiple law enforcement agencies across the county, whose arrestees were then booked into the Hamilton County Jail, the Sheriff’s Office said. The information is also reported monthly to the District Attorney General’s Conference in Nashville.
Hamilton County Sheriff Austin Garrett said Wednesday that his office was working on a way to make the monthly updates public. A spokesperson said the updates will come for the foreseeable future as part of Garrett’s commitment to transparency.
— Compiled by Mason Edwards
Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office / Data on July 2025 arrestees with unlawful or unknown citizenship status
Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office / Data on July 2025 arrestees with unlawful or unknown citizenship status
Mason Edwards is the breaking news reporter at the Chattanooga Times Free Press, where he covers fast-moving stories across the region — from public safety and crime to major community developments. Originally from Dayton, Tennessee, Mason has been reporting on Chattanooga communities for the past four years. He is a recent graduate of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, where he earned a degree in Communication with minors in Criminal Justice and Rhetoric & Professional Writing.
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