To find someone detained by ICE, start with the online detainee locator, but don’t rely on it: right now it often shows nothing, even when ICE has the person.
Call the local ICE office, put money in the commissary so your relative can call you, and get a lawyer right away. A habeas corpus petition can force the government to say where your relative is held.
People arrested in New York City are often moved to New Jersey within hours and to Louisiana, Arizona, or Texas within days. ICE does not tell families when it moves someone.
What You’ll Learn
- How to search ICE’s online detainee locator, and why it often comes up empty right now
- What to do when the locator shows nothing, including how a habeas corpus petition makes the government say where your relative is held
- Where people arrested in New York are usually taken, and how fast they are moved
- How to reach a relative in detention, and why the commissary account matters
- Who gets a bond hearing in New York right now, what bond costs, and who can pay it
- Why you should hire a lawyer before the first court date
Why the ICE Detainee Locator Often Shows Nothing
The ICE Online Detainee Locator is still the place to start. Search with your relative’s A-number and country of birth, or with their exact first and last name and country of birth. Name searches only find exact matches, children under 18 never appear, and the information can be up to eight hours old.
Until a few months ago, families could usually find a detained relative this way. That is not the case right now. An empty result does not mean ICE does not have your relative: ICE is no longer careful about keeping the locator up to date, and sometimes it enters nothing at all.
An empty result can have other causes. Your relative may have agreed to leave and already be out of the country. Or ICE may simply not have entered the information yet.
In the past, the locator would at least tell you to call the local office while ICE decided where to send the person. In our view, the change is deliberate. A habeas corpus petition (a court filing that asks a federal judge to rule on whether the detention is lawful) has to be filed where the person is held, and not knowing the location makes that harder.
Key Insight: An empty locator result does not mean ICE does not have your relative. ICE often has not entered the information yet, so call the local ICE office next.
How to Find Someone Detained by ICE When the Locator Fails
When the locator comes up empty, there are three things you can do.
First, call the local ICE field office and ask where your relative is. You can also call ICE’s Detention Reporting and Information Line at 1-888-351-4024, Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern time. Spanish-speaking operators are available.
Second, if you can speak to your relative, ask them to find out the name of their deportation officer. That name is an important piece of information. It can take real effort to find out and substantial effort to actually reach the officer.
Deportation officers handle large caseloads, so they may not tell you much, but they can tell you the status of the case. What a call can do depends on your relative’s legal situation, because people are being arrested both before and after deportation orders. If your relative has a final order of deportation and no court order is stopping it, you can try to work with the officer so your relative is sent home as quickly as possible.
Officers will not tell a family the exact date of a removal.
Third, a lawyer can file a habeas corpus petition, which has to be filed where your relative is held. When the location is unknown, the lawyer files where your relative is believed to be, and the government will often provide information about where the detainee is actually being held. If the habeas petition was filed in the wrong jurisdiction, a court can transfer it, or it can be withdrawn and refiled.
To check whether your relative has a hearing in immigration court, call 1-800-898-7180. You can also use the immigration court’s online case portal with your A-number and nationality.
How to Find Someone Detained by ICE After a Transfer
People arrested in New York City usually do not stay in the New York area. Many are first held at 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan, in holding rooms meant for stays of 12 hours or less.
There are not many detention facilities around the city, so most people are sent fairly quickly to a detention center in New Jersey, or to detention centers in the South: Louisiana, Arizona, Texas.
A move can happen within a few hours or a week later. Generally, people are moved to New Jersey quickly. New Jersey has an airport fairly close to its detention centers, and people are often moved out of the area several days later.
ICE does not tell families when it moves someone. Its own transfer directive says ICE is not required to notify family members, but it does have to notify a detained person’s lawyer of record, generally within 24 hours. This often does not happen.
In the past, families could follow a move through the locator, but not anymore.
Higher courts have some control over whether ICE is allowed to move a detainee. If a habeas corpus petition is filed quickly enough, the lawyer can ask the judge to order that your relative cannot be moved out of the area. Indeed, this is often part of the initial filing. A court order is the strongest protection against a transfer, as the government is supposed to abide by Judges’ orders.
The Bottom Line: ICE does not tell families when it moves someone. A habeas corpus petition filed quickly can ask a judge to keep your relative in the area.
How to Reach a Relative in ICE Detention
In most detention centers, calls go one way: outward. You can call the facility and try to leave a message, and the locator lists contact information for each facility. But your relative usually has to make the call.
Outgoing calls need money in your relative’s commissary account, so put money in that account as fast as you can. If there is no money, your relative can try to make collect calls.
Some detention centers let people keep their cell phones. We have had clients use their own phone, or another detainee’s phone, to tell their family where they were. Each detention center has its own policies and procedures.
Key Insight: Put money in your relative's commissary account as fast as you can. Commissary money is what lets them call you.
Why You Should Hire an Attorney Right Away
Do not wait before hiring counsel, as a Federal action may be the best way to get your family member or relative. In our view, many of these arrests are illegal and violate the U.S. Constitution, and often the only workable way to get someone out is a habeas corpus petition. Where that petition is filed matters enormously, and time decides where it can be filed.
Results depend on the location and the facts. In Pennsylvania, for example, federal judges have been granting habeas petitions and ordering bond hearings. In New York, the goal is often a ruling that the arrest itself was illegal.
People are being moved to districts where courts have been much less favorable to these petitions. If your relative is moved to Louisiana, a bond is very unlikely, and the habeas petition may not succeed either. The faster a lawyer files, the better the chance.
The Bottom Line: Do not wait for a court date. The faster a lawyer files a habeas corpus petition, the better the chance.
Bond Hearings in New York Right Now
Not everyone arrested by ICE gets a bond hearing. Some people are subject to mandatory detention, which means no bond hearing: for example, people with a final order of removal, and people who crossed the border within the last two years. Bond hearing eligibility is set by statute, and the detained individual may well be entitled to a bond hearing.
A majority of Courts of Appeal have ruled that noncitizens who entered without inspection (EWI) and live in the interior for at least 2 years are not subject to mandatory detention. This includes the federal appeals court covering New York (the Second Circuit), which ruled that people who entered without inspection and were arrested at least two years later, away from the border, are entitled to a bond hearing.
The Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, covering New Jersey and Pennsylvania, ruled the same way in August. Other Courts of Appeals agree. Thus, the First, Second, Third, Fourth, Sixth, Seventh, Ninth, Tenth, and Eleventh Circuits all take this stance.
In contrast, the Fifth and the Eighth Circuits have sided with the Executive branch supporting mandatory detention for EWI entrants, no matter how long they have resided inside the United States.
On October 1, 2026, the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case. Until it decides, that ruling still applies in New York.
Unfortunately, the legal right to a bond hearing and the outcome are two different things. At this time, many immigration judges are denying bond, saying the person is a flight risk, even for people who have lived here for decades, have never committed a crime, have a steady job, and have a family. We believe that is wrong, but it is what we are seeing.
At a bond hearing, the person is supposed to show that they are not a flight risk, have ties to the community, and have financial means, so the judge can set an amount that makes it likely they will come back to court.
| What the judge looks at | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Ties to the community | Shows the person is not likely to disappear |
| Financial means | Lets the judge set an amount that makes it likely they come back to court |
| Any possible way to stay (adjustment of status, cancellation of removal, an asylum claim) | Without one, bond is likely to be higher, if it is granted at all |
| An affidavit of support signed by someone for the person | Right now, no one is being released without one |
$5,000 could be appropriate for someone with a steady job and no immigration violations. But many judges are not setting an amount at all: they deny bond outright, even judges who used to grant bonds, and even in cases that never would have had an issue with flight risk previously. Today, bonds are rarely granted because every person without status is being treated as a flight risk, making the grant of a bond less probable.
How to Pay an Immigration Bond
Not every relative can pay the bond. Under ICE’s bond rules, the person paying has to be a U.S. citizen or a permanent resident.
If you do not have status yourself, it is better not to walk into an immigration office right now.
An immigration bond works differently from criminal bail. In a criminal case, a bail bondsman often takes part of the bond in cash and collateral for the rest. Immigration bonds are generally paid in full, in cash.
In our view, there is usually no point in going to a bail bondsman: pay the bond directly with immigration.
Most bonds are now paid online through ICE’s CeBONDS system, by bank wire or ACH transfer from the payer’s own bank. Payments go through Monday to Friday between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m., in the time zone where your relative is held.
Paying in person at an ICE office is only possible on a case-by-case basis, so call the field office first. The payer also has to fill out forms, including Form I-352, and needs ID and a Social Security number. If your relative goes to every hearing and follows every condition, the money comes back with interest once ICE cancels the bond, usually when the case ends.
Once a bond is set and paid, release happens fairly quickly, though not always the same day. But bonds are rare right now, and in 30 years of practice, we have not seen a period like this. If your relative is fortunate enough to get a bond, pay it as soon as possible so they can get out of detention.
Should a Relative Without Papers Visit?
Visiting a detention center means showing documents and walking into a place with locked doors and gates that you are not free to leave. For a relative without status, that carries real risk right now.
An individual who wishes to visit a relative in an immigration detention center when the visitor is undocumented should carefully assess the risk. In the past, we would not have raised this. Today we do.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much is an immigration bond?
The legal minimum is $1,500, under 8 U.S.C. 1226(a). For someone with a steady job and no immigration violations, $5,000 has often been common.
The bigger problem right now is that many immigration judges in New York and around the country are denying bond outright. We recently had a client who had lived here for 35 years, with a steady job and children, and he was still denied bond as a flight risk. He was fortunately able to be released because we had filed a habeas corpus petition, and the Federal Judge ordered his release.
Does everyone detained by ICE get a bond hearing?
No. Some people are subject to mandatory detention, for example, people with a final order of removal or people who crossed the border within the last two years. Specified criminal acts can also subject an individual to mandatory detention. Others, at least in jurisdictions with rulings about mandatory detention, are likely entitled to a bond hearing.
Unfortunately, bond hearings are largely ineffective right now. Many immigration judges are ruling that everyone is a flight risk, even people who have lived here for decades, never committed a crime, have steady jobs, and have families.
Who can pay an immigration bond?
Not every relative can pay the bond. The person paying has to be a U.S. citizen or a permanent resident, and ICE asks for ID and a Social Security number. If you do not have status yourself, it is better not to walk into an immigration office right now.
How long does release take after the bond is paid?
Once a bond is set and paid, release happens fairly quickly, though not always the same day. But bonds are rare right now. In 30 years of practice, we have not seen a period like this.
If your relative is fortunate enough to get a bond, pay it as soon as possible so they can get out of detention.
Will ICE tell me if my relative is moved to another facility?
No. ICE does not tell families when it moves someone, and the locator no longer tracks moves reliably. ICE’s transfer rules require it to notify a detained person’s lawyer of record, not the family.
If a habeas corpus petition is filed quickly enough, the lawyer can ask a judge to order that your relative cannot be moved out of the area.
Can ICE arrest someone with a pending green card application?
Yes. The group of people ICE can arrest has grown enormously. If you do not have permanent residence, you are potentially arrestable: with an adjustment of status application pending, after checking in with ICE for 30 years, or with a case in immigration court.
Even people going to a normal adjustment of status interview can be arrested. If you are the one traveling, read our guide to ICE at the airport.
Need Immigration Help?
If someone in your family has been detained by ICE in New York, contact us right away. The first days matter most.
This article is provided for informational purposes only, and does not constitute legal advice nor does it create an attorney–client relationship with Oltarsh & Associates, P.C. or any of its lawyers, employees and/or agents. Laws and policies change, and information here may not reflect the most current legal developments. You can contact us about your specific situation.
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