No longer do family members and attorneys have to grapple with ICE Officers to locate detained people. The Obama Administration has launched the “Online Detainee Locator System” to aid people in locating detainees in ICE custody. Previously, once a person entered into the detention system it was difficult to locate them. Often detainees are shuttled from detention center to detention center, sometimes in another state, and the only means by which they could be located was by talking to an ICE Officer directly. Now once a person is transferred and booked into a new facility their new location will be updated in the system. ICE states the database is updated as frequently as every 20 minutes to eight hours.
The locator system allows people to search by detainee’s Alien Registration Number (A-number) and country of birth, or by the detainee’s first and last name, country of birth, and date of birth. When using the search detainee’s information must be typed exactly how it appears on the detainee’s detention record.
The search does not provide location information for everyone, for example the search cannot be used to find persons under the age of 18 or person released from ICE custody more than 60 days prior. Other reasons may include protecting national security.
Currently the system is available and English and Spanish with promises of more languages to follow.
For more information see http://www.ice.gov/locator.