A family's first hours after an ICE arrest are spent looking. The person has been moved from a car to a field office to a facility, sometimes in another state, and no one has called. This piece is the sequence that works, with the limits of each tool stated plainly.
The locator
The Online Detainee Locator at locator.ice.gov searches two ways: by the nine-digit A-number together with country of birth, or by last name, first name and country of birth. Shorter A-numbers take leading zeros. The number is printed at the top right of the Notice to Appear, and on every other DHS document the person has ever received.
Its limits matter. Searches are exact-match: "Robert Smyth" will not find "Robert Smith". It shows only people currently in ICE custody, never anyone under 18, and ICE withholds some records at its discretion. Records can be up to eight hours old, and a person may not appear at all until processing and upload are complete, which can take a day. A blank result means one of three things: not yet uploaded, held by another agency such as CBP, or no longer in ICE custody. Search again every few hours. If nothing appears after a day, call the ERO field office for the area of the arrest; the directory is at ice.gov/contact/field-offices.
The officer
Every detained person has an assigned deportation officer, and every facility page on ice.gov names the route to that officer, usually a field office outreach mailbox. A lawyer must have a Form G-28 on file before the office will discuss the case. Without a lawyer, the Detention Reporting and Information Line at [1-888-351-4024](tel:18883514024), Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern, in English and Spanish, takes questions about detention, abuse, family separation and case information. For the court side, the EOIR case information system at acis.eoir.justice.gov and the hotline at [1-800-898-7180](tel:18008987180) give the hearing date by A-number.
Transfers
ICE moves people between facilities and states, often without notice and frequently far from family and counsel. Re-run the locator whenever contact drops. DHS must notify the immigration court of a move, but the judge who first had the case keeps it until venue is formally changed by motion; a judge in the receiving district cannot act on the case, other than on bond, without one. The detained person must still file their own change of address with the court. On transfer, only legal mail follows; ordinary mail is returned.
Money, calls, visits
Deposits to a detainee's account are facility-specific: money orders, lobby kiosks, online vendors. Mailed funds are receipted at processing; never mail cash. Detainees cannot receive calls. A family leaves an urgent message with the facility, giving full name and A-number, and waits for the person to call out, collect or by prepaid PIN, recorded. The exception is the pro bono platform: free, unmonitored calls to approved legal organizations and consulates, by speed-dial codes posted at the phones.
Visiting rules are published on each facility's page and vary. At Stewart in Georgia, the country's second-largest facility, it is one non-contact visit a week, up to an hour, with government photo ID for adults, a guardian for minors, and phones and purses left in the car. Attorney visits and legal calls are scheduled through ERO's eFile system.
Medical care
ICE's health service staffs only 17 facilities directly and audits the rest. Sick call is run by the facility. When it fails, escalate in order and in writing: the medical unit, the deportation officer, the Detention Reporting line, the field office director, then outside oversight. Families should have the person's prescriptions and dosages written down before the first call, because the facility will not.
The oversight that is left
This is the part that has changed most. The Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman, created by Congress to take detainee complaints, went from about 116 staff in early 2025 to five by January 2026 and was wound down in May 2026. Its pages are archived; treat it as gone. The DHS Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties was cut by roughly 80 percent, to two employees and some contractors, by December 2025; its complaint portal still accepts filings. The DHS Inspector General's hotline, [1-800-323-8603](tel:18003238603), remains, and routes medical complaints to the Detention Reporting line.
In practical terms, complaints now go to ICE about ICE, and to the Inspector General. The route that produced results is the one families have always had: a lawyer, a habeas petition where detention is prolonged, and, for conditions, the press.
What to gather
The A-number. Passport and birth certificate. Copies of every prior filing with its receipt notice. Proof of continuous presence: leases, tax returns, school records. Medical records and prescriptions with dosages. Any criminal record, including police reports and sentencing orders, because the lawyer will need to see exactly what the government sees. And the name and number of any lawyer who has ever represented the person.
The scale
Detention has never been larger. ICE used 456 facilities in February 2026 while listing 220 on its website, and opened 152 of them after January 2025. The largest by average population in fiscal 2026 are Camp East Montana at El Paso, Stewart in Georgia, Adams County in Mississippi, Pearsall in Texas and Adelanto in California. A person arrested in New York may be found, a week later, in any of them.