ICE Ends Public Disclosure of Detainee Locations

The policy change involves removing detainees subject to final deportation orders from the agency's online locator system. Immigration attorneys report that clients have vanished from the system overnight, leaving families in states of panic and creating immediate barriers to legal representation. Greg Chen of the American Immigration Lawyers Association noted that the shift carries grave implications for due process, as the inability to track prisoners prevents counsel from fulfilling their duties.

Legal experts are framing the move as a constitutional crisis. Georgetown University political scientist Jonathan Ladd argued that the policy violates long-standing habeas corpus rights, which protect individuals from being hidden by the state to avoid judicial review. By obscuring the locations of detainees, the government makes it nearly impossible for lawyers to file petitions or verify the well-being of their clients.

The human cost of this lack of transparency was highlighted by the case of Wilbur Rafael Garces Perez, a 28-year-old Venezuelan man shot by ICE in Austin, Texas. After he was moved from a hospital to an undisclosed location, his attorney, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, struggled to track him down. She eventually confirmed he was being held at Pearsall for interrogation, reporting that he remains in poor health with a bullet still lodged in his shoulder.