ICE Detention Data Visualized (1/1/23 – 10/16/25)
Between January 1, 2023 and October 16, 2025, over 1.1 million people were detained by ICE, according to deportationdata.org, which compiled ICE information using the Freedom of Information Act.
Over 500 years ago, the Incas developed a method to communicate complex mathematical information and qualitative ideas, called khipus – knotted string devices. Although this macrame piece is not a khipu, it follows the tradition of using cords and knots to convey information.
This piece exposes the profound disruption to millions of people's lives, from those who were detained to their families, places of work, and communities. The intent is to visualize the timeline of weekly aggregated total detentions from January 1, 2023 to October 16, 2025. Each of these 145 weeks is represented by a macrame strand, where the length is proportional to the total number of people detained that week. The diversity of all ICE detainees is represented by the thousands of knots and the different types of fibers. The waves of the lengths of strands vary due to administration initiatives and policies. Important markers of immigration actions are listed below.
- May 11, 2023: The Biden administration ended Title 42, the Asylum Restriction Rule (marked by the short gold and orange braided strand on the far left).
- June 2024: The Biden administration executive action, the Border Proclamation to suspend/limit immigration entry at the southern border (marked by the long gold and orange braided strand near the middle).
- Jan 20, 2025: Donald Trump took office (marked by the red strand near the right).
- June 4, 2025: The Trump administration issued Proclamation 10949, which restricted entry of foreign nationals from 19 identified countries. This caused widespread protests around the country, especially in Chicago and Los Angeles. June 4, 2025 had 27,435 total detentions — the most detentions on a single day (marked by red threads woven into the macrame strand).
Rachel Saidi
Rachel Saidi began her undergraduate experience as an art major before shifting over to the mathematics department. She spent two and a half years serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in Tanzania, East Africa, where she taught math at an all-girls boarding school. While much of her time was spent teaching, in her free time, she chronicled her daily life in her sketchbooks, and she taught herself how to macrame using the readily available local sisal fibers.
After earning her master’s in mathematics education, she shifted her role from teaching mathematics in Baltimore to working part-time as a math professor at Montgomery College, a two-year college in Rockville, Maryland. At the same time, she was working as a business manager for a local artist and raising three kids.
It was during her time earning another master’s degree in statistics that Saidi began exploring new types of art media. She learned to code to explore data and design data visualizations, which became a new passion. One of her recent favorite courses to teach is Data Visualization and Communication. She is currently a professor of math, statistics, and data science and the new department chair of Computer and Data Sciences at Montgomery College.
Saidi lives with her family in Silver Spring, Maryland and can be found most evenings either coding or creating new macrame pieces.
