ICE Stops Revealing Locations of Thousands of Detainees Facing Deportation
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) reportedly changed its policy and is no longer revealing where it is holding most detainees subject to final deportation orders.
Current and former ICE officials told the Associated Press that those detainees were removed from the online detainee locator system on September 15, 2026.
And the Washington Post reports the new policy also bars immigration officers from sharing information about a detainee’s location with their attorneys or relatives.
ICE did not confirm or deny the policy change, but in a statement to the Post said that immigrants with final removal orders “are being prioritized” for deportation and that all detainees have access to phones.
The policy does not apply to detainees held at temporary holding facilities in Minneapolis, New York City, suburban Chicago, as well as the detention facility in Adelanto, California. In those facilities, a judge ordered ICE to list detainees in the online locator.
Attorneys Warn of Legal Impact
Attorneys and immigrant rights advocates say they are deeply troubled by the policy change. They say it could speed up deportations by making last-minute legal challenges harder.
“Families are freaking out because they think the person has been deported and they don’t know where the person might be,” said Greg Chen, senior director of government relations at the American Immigration Lawyers Association. “On the attorney side, this has serious implications for the ability to contact their client.”
However, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has argued that people subject to final removal orders have received due process. Detainees can also challenge their detention or removal by asking a judge to release them on constitutional grounds.
But immigration advocates point out that attorneys generally must file such petitions in the district where the detainee is being held.
ICE detention facilities held more than 65,000 people as of early July. Separately, nearly 16,000 people arrested and booked into ICE detention during July were subject to final removal orders, according to ICE data obtained by the Deportation Data Project at UC Berkeley and UCLA.
