- ICE stopped listing people with final removal orders in its public online locator on September 15, 2026.
- The Amica Center reported that 17 clients were affected; ICE has not confirmed a nationwide total.
- Court orders require prompt listings at four named locations, but transfers elsewhere can still complicate searches.
ICE stopped listing detainees with final removal orders in its public online locator on September 15, 2026. The change has made it harder for relatives and attorneys to establish where people are held after transfers.
That gap affects searches from Utah, too. ICE can move detainees across the country, while their locations no longer appear in the public system.
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The change reportedly covers thousands of detainees. ICE has not publicly confirmed an exact total.
A missing listing does not establish that someone has been deported. The person may still be in custody.
The locator can lose a person before ICE releases them
Atenas Burrola Estrada, deputy program director with the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights, said all of the center’s clients with final orders had disappeared from the database. She said 17 clients were affected as of Monday.
“every single one of our clients who has a final order has disappeared from the locator,”
The count offers one view of the change’s reach among people represented by a single organization. It does not establish the total number affected nationwide.
My Khanh Ngo, an attorney with the ACLU, said the removed names included eight Somali men detained at Guantánamo Bay. Their names had been among those no longer displayed.
Transfers can carry detainees thousands of miles from their lawyers
ICE transfers can complicate searches even when a detainee remains in custody. People may be moved between facilities before deportation, sometimes thousands of miles from home, family, and counsel.
Greg Chen, senior director of government relations at the American Immigration Lawyers Association, said the transfers make the database change especially concerning. The public listing can help relatives and attorneys establish where to seek contact.
When a name is absent, families and lawyers may not know whether the person remains detained, has moved to another facility, or is being transferred toward removal. That uncertainty can delay communication and disrupt last-minute legal filings.
The ICE shuttles can therefore add another step to an already difficult search. A relative may have to verify a transfer while the public system offers no current location.
Court orders keep several detention sites visible
The policy has exceptions at locations where judges have ordered ICE to list detainees promptly as part of litigation over detention practices. The named sites are:
- Adelanto, California
- Temporary facilities in Minneapolis
- Temporary facilities in New York City
- Temporary facilities in suburban Chicago
Those court orders require prompt listings at some facilities. The exceptions do not remove the broader difficulty for people transferred elsewhere, including those whose families are searching from Utah.
ICE rejected advocates’ description of people disappearing
An ICE representative rejected the characterization that detainees had been made to disappear, saying:
“ICE does not ‘disappear’ people. This is a ridiculous lie that the media is peddling to demonize ICE law enforcement.”
Advocates have used “vanish” to describe what happens when a person’s name disappears from the public system. The agency’s response disputes that language; the reported change concerns the information displayed in the locator.
AILA alerted its members about the change on Friday, September 19, 2026. The report describing the policy was published September 21, 2026.
