Require ICE to notify detainees’ lawyers and essential contacts before transporting them between facilities and after they have arrived.
Why it matters
ICE frequently transfers detainees between facilities hundreds of miles apart without notifying their attorney or families, a malicious strategy intended to isolate detainees from their support networks, create barriers for legal assistance, or move venues to jurisdictions more sympathetic to the agency. These abrupt relocations, frequently within hours before a lawyer’s scheduled visit, create confusion, panic, and an opportunity for detainees to go missing or incommunicado as their attorney scrambles to locate them. Incontinuity and inaccessibility undermine the legal rights of detainees and leave them vulnerable to coercion or sudden deportation.
Our recommendations
Create a process whereby detainees can provide the contact information for their attorney and a few family members whom ICE is required to notify when a detainee moves between detention facilities or experiences major changes in their circumstances, such as hospitalization, solitary confinement, or upcoming court appearances. Such a strategy to reliably maintain contact between detainees and their support network through real-time updates on their location and status compensates for the failures of the Online Detainee Locator system and attempts to thwart enforced disappearances by ICE.