Administrative detention refers to the practice of holding individuals in government custody without filing criminal charges against them. In the immigration context, ICE detains non-citizens pending removal proceedings, asylum processing, or other civil immigration decisions. Unlike criminal incarceration, which requires conviction for a crime, administrative detention is a civil process — meaning many people held in ICE facilities have not been charged with or convicted of any crime. ICE can detain people for months or years while their immigration cases proceed through the courts. The government argues it has broad authority to detain people it intends to remove. Critics argue that indefinite civil detention without criminal process raises due process concerns under the Fifth Amendment.