How to Find Someone in ICE Custody
Most people arrive at this question in the worst possible circumstances: someone did not come home, and nobody will tell you where they are. The search itself is straightforward once you have the right identifier. The hard part — and the situation most families are actually in — is not having one.
If you do not have an alien registration number
This is the common case, so start here rather than at the end. A detainee search will generally accept a full name together with country of birth and date of birth, which most families do have. Accuracy matters more than completeness: the name must be spelled as it appears in immigration records rather than as the family spells it, and where a person uses both a paternal and a maternal surname the records may carry either or both. Try the variants. A search that fails is very often a spelling problem rather than an absence.
Where the A-number is, if you can get to it
The alien registration number appears on almost anything ever issued or sent by immigration — a green card, a work permit, a receipt or approval notice, correspondence about a case. If you can reach the person’s documents, it is there. It is the single identifier that makes everything else easier, which is why keeping a copy of it somewhere findable is worth doing before it is ever needed.
Why the search sometimes shows nothing
A blank result does not mean the person is not detained. There is generally a lag between an arrest and an appearance in the system, people are moved between facilities and can be in transit, and someone held by a local jail on an immigration hold may not appear at all yet. Check again rather than concluding from one empty search, and check local jail rosters in parallel.
What to do the moment you find them
Write down the facility, its location, and the A-number if the record shows one. Find out the facility’s rules for calls, visits and legal mail, which vary by facility rather than by any national rule. Then move quickly on the things that are time-sensitive — a detained case moves faster than most people expect, and the first days matter more than they seem to.
If you still cannot find them
Ask a lawyer to look. Attorneys have channels for locating someone that are not open to the public, and the request costs you nothing at the enquiry stage. That is a far better use of the next few hours than continuing to refresh a search that is returning nothing.
Frequently asked questions
Can I find someone without their alien registration number?
Usually yes — a full name with country of birth and date of birth is generally enough. The most common reason a search fails is a spelling difference between how the family writes the name and how immigration records hold it, particularly with two surnames.
The search says no records found. Does that mean they are not detained?
No. There is typically a delay before someone appears, people in transit between facilities may not show, and someone held in a local jail on an immigration hold may not be listed yet. Keep checking and check local jail rosters at the same time.
Where do I find an alien registration number?
On a green card, a work permit, or any receipt, notice or approval ever sent about an immigration case. If you can get to the person’s paperwork, it is on it.
Where you are decides which court and which facility
The law on this page is federal and the same everywhere. Which immigration court hears the case, and which facility someone is held in, are not — and in detention those two things shape the practicalities more than the law does.
Related
General information, not legal advice. Immigration law and policy change frequently — confirm your options in a consultation before acting on anything here.