Stories
ICE Hides Detainee Locations, Hindering Legal Challenges and Family Contact
- •ICE has stopped publicly revealing the locations of thousands of detainees with final deportation orders, making it difficult for lawyers and relatives to find them.
- •The unannounced change, implemented on September 15, removed these detainees from ICE's online detainee locator system.
- •This move, affecting nearly 16,000 people in July, could speed deportations by making last-minute legal challenges harder to pursue.
- •Lawyers and families are losing track of clients and loved ones, raising concerns about due process and the ability to exercise legal options, including challenging detention or removal.
- •The change does not apply to specific facilities in Adelanto, Minneapolis, New York City, or suburban Chicago, where judges have ordered prompt listing of detainees.
Key Questions Answered
ICE stopped publicly revealing the locations of detainees with final removal orders on September 15 as part of an unannounced move, making it harder for lawyers and families to track them and potentially speeding up deportations by impeding last-minute legal challenges.
The change does not apply to detainees held at a facility in Adelanto, California, or at temporary holding facilities in Minneapolis, New York City, or suburban Chicago, because judges have ordered ICE to promptly list detainees in those locations.
Detainees subject to final removal orders can still seek to reopen their cases, file habeas petitions asking a judge to release them on constitutional grounds, or pursue legal protections against deportation if they face persecution or torture.
