Lawsuit seeks to block ICE from hiding locations of detainees with final
removal orders
[October 29, 2026]
By RYAN J. FOLEY
Groups that provide legal services to immigrants filed a lawsuit
Wednesday seeking to stop the Trump administration's new policy of
hiding the locations of tens of thousands of detainees with final
deportation orders.
The policy, adopted suddenly last month to expedite deportations,
interferes with immigration lawyers’ rights by making it difficult, and
sometimes impossible, to locate their clients, according to the lawsuit
filed in federal court in Boston. It asks a judge to issue an order
blocking the “unlawful and inhumane” change.
“No one should be denied a meaningful opportunity to defend their rights
because the government has made it impossible for their lawyer to find
them,” said Jacquelynne Bowman, executive director of Greater Boston
Legal Services, one of the four groups listed as plaintiffs. “This
arbitrary new administrative change leaves hundreds of thousands of
people at risk of potentially life-altering consequences without
essential legal help."
The lawsuit challenges U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's
decision, first reported by The Associated Press, to remove the
locations of people facing final removal orders from its Online Detainee
Locator System and to instruct staff not to reveal their whereabouts. As
of last month, the move affected more than 16,000 of the nearly 69,000
detainees who were in ICE custody.
ICE and its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, have not
publicly confirmed the change but have said they are prioritizing people
with final removal orders for deportation. They have also said they are
facing a “historic number of injunctions” from courts blocking their
efforts. The agencies have denied that they are disappearing detainees,
saying they remain free to make phone calls.
“Illegal aliens in detention have several ways to communicate with their
family members and lawyers,” DHS said in a statement responding to the
lawsuit. “The appropriate process due to an illegal alien with final
deportation orders is removal, plain and simple.”
[to top of second column]
|
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement website, used to locate
someone in immigration detention, is displayed on Sept. 21, 2026, in
New York. (AP Photo/Rachel Leathe, File)
Since 2010, lawyers and family members have used ICE's online system
to track detainees as they get moved from facility to facility
through ICE's sprawling detention network.
Approximately 1.4 million people living in the U.S. are subject to
final orders of removal, which means an immigration judge has ruled
they should be deported and the decision has been upheld on appeal
or not appealed.
Those individuals still have several options to challenge the
conditions of their detention and looming deportations, including
asking to reopen proceedings, seeking relief from removal to third
countries and challenging violations of their rights. Federal judges
have ruled thousands of times that detainees should be released or
granted bond hearings.
Since the change went into effect, lawyers have been unable to find
clients and potential clients and have spent “significantly more
time” tracking down others, the lawsuit says. Calls to ICE,
including to its Detention and Removal Information Line, “lead to
long wait times on hold, sudden hang-ups, a general lack of
information or no answer at all,” it says.
As a workaround, some lawyers have tried to find their clients
through an ICE program that schedules legal calls, but only a small
percentage of detention centers use it, the lawsuit says. The result
has been delayed or missed legal filings and fewer cases taken,
according to the organizations.
The lawsuit argues the change violates the Administrative Procedure
Act because it was adopted without explanation and the First
Amendment, which protects lawyers' ability to advise people of their
legal rights and seek prospective clients.
All contents © copyright 2026 Associated Press. All rights reserved |
