The phone call comes without warning. Someone was picked up at a traffic stop, at a check-in, outside a workplace — and now no one knows where they are. In the hours that follow, families often feel there is nothing to do but wait. That is not true. What happens in the first 48 hours frequently shapes everything that comes after.
Here is what to do, in order.
Step one: find out where they are
ICE maintains a public database called the Online Detainee Locator System, available at locator.ice.gov. It works in two ways: you can search using the person’s Alien Registration Number (“A-number”) together with their country of birth, or by their full name, date of birth, and country of birth.
The A-number search is far more reliable. If you have any immigration paperwork in the house — a work permit, a court notice, a receipt from an application — the A-number is on it. It begins with the letter A and is usually eight or nine digits. If it is only eight digits, add a zero to the front.
A few things families learn the hard way:
- The name search only works if you enter the name exactly as a government officer typed it. Try reversing first and last names. If the person has two surnames, try them hyphenated, spaced, and joined together.
- Records may not appear for 24 to 48 hours after an arrest. An empty result on day one does not mean much. Search again the next morning.
- The system only lists people 18 and older. Minors will not appear.
- Facility information can be several hours out of date, and transfers happen without notice to families.
Screenshot every result you get, including the date and time. If your family member is moved, that record becomes useful evidence of where they have been.
If the locator turns up nothing
Call the ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations field office covering the area where the arrest happened. If you know or suspect the facility, call it directly — every detention center and contracted county jail runs a detainee information line.
The consulate of your family member’s home country is another route that families often overlook. Consulates are notified when their nationals are detained and can sometimes locate someone the public system cannot.
One caution: contacting ICE directly puts your own information in their system. If anyone in your household has a pending immigration matter, have an attorney make these calls instead.
Step two: get a message to them about signing
This is the single most important thing you can communicate, and it is urgent.
Do not sign anything without speaking to a lawyer first. Not a form, not a statement, not a document you are told is routine.
Detained people are regularly presented with paperwork for voluntary departure or a stipulated removal order. Signing can waive the right to see a judge and can end a case that had real defenses in it. People sign because they are exhausted, frightened, and told it is the fastest way home. It is very difficult to undo.
Two other rights are worth repeating to them: they may remain silent, and they may be represented by a lawyer — though not one provided at government expense, which is why the family’s speed in retaining counsel matters so much.
Step three: gather documents tonight
An attorney can move much faster with these in hand. Collect what you can:
- Any document showing the A-number
- Passport, birth certificate, and any prior immigration filings or court notices
- Proof of how long they have lived here — leases, utility bills, tax returns, pay stubs
- Evidence of family ties, especially U.S. citizen or permanent resident spouses and children
- Any criminal record documents, including dispositions — a lawyer needs the full picture, not the favorable half
- Letters from employers, clergy, teachers, or neighbors
Also write down a timeline of the arrest while it is fresh: where it happened, what time, what was said, whether a warrant was shown, and the names or badge numbers of any officers present.
Can they get out on bond?
Possibly — but this is the most unsettled question in immigration law right now, and the honest answer depends heavily on where your family member is being held.
Since 2025, the government has taken the position that people who entered without inspection are “applicants for admission” subject to mandatory detention, and therefore cannot ask an immigration judge for bond at all — regardless of how many years they have lived here. Federal appellate courts have divided sharply over whether that reading is lawful, and the question is working its way toward the Supreme Court.
For families in our two markets, the current landscape is more favorable than in much of the country. In 2026 both the Second Circuit, which covers New York, and the Eleventh Circuit, which covers Florida, rejected the government’s expanded reading and held that people arrested in the interior are entitled to seek bond before an immigration judge. Where bond is unavailable or wrongly denied, a habeas corpus petition in federal court is often the next step.
Because these rulings continue to shift, treat this section as a starting point rather than a promise, and confirm the current posture with an attorney before relying on it.
Why the clock matters
Detention timelines move whether or not a family is ready. Hearings get scheduled, deadlines run, and transfers happen — sometimes to facilities hundreds of miles away, which changes which court hears the case. Families who reach an attorney in the first day or two consistently have more options than those who wait a week hoping the situation resolves on its own.
Detention is not deportation. It is the beginning of a process in which your family member still has rights, and often has defenses that are not obvious to someone sitting in a cell.
Gursoy Law Firm represents detained clients and their families in New York and Florida. If someone you love has been detained, contact us as soon as possible — the earlier we are involved, the more we can do.
This article is general information, not legal advice, and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Immigration law in this area is changing rapidly and outcomes depend on individual facts. Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.