How to Find a Detained Immigrant

The locator gives you two ways to search, and they are not equal. The strongest is the Alien Registration Number, usually called the A-Number: the letter A followed by nine digits, paired with the person’s country of birth. ICE itself says an A-Number search returns a better match than a name-and-birthdate search, because it points at one unique file instead of every similarly named person from the same country. If you have it, use it.

Most families do not realize they already have the A-Number sitting in a drawer. It is printed on a green card, an employment authorization card or work permit, a visa stamp in a passport, the immigrant fee handout, and the notices and letters sent by immigration agencies. Pull together every immigration document the person kept at home and look for that “A” followed by nine numbers. If you genuinely cannot find it, the second method still works: enter the exact first name, last name, country of birth, and date of birth. The catch is precision, and that is the subject of the next section, because small differences in how a name was recorded are the most common reason a real person seems to vanish from the system.

The two ways to search, side by side

By A-Number plus country of birth. Cleanest match, fewest false results, and the method ICE recommends. Use this whenever you can find the A-Number on an immigration document.

By name plus country of birth plus date of birth. Works when there is no A-Number, but it is unforgiving about spelling. The legal name on file must match what you type, which is why name variations matter so much.

A confirmed location changes your job from searching to connecting. Each detention facility sets its own rules, so call ahead and ask exactly how to put money on a phone or commissary account, when visiting hours are, what identification visitors must bring, and how to send mail so it is not rejected. Detained people usually cannot receive incoming calls but can call out, so getting funds onto their account is often the fastest way to actually hear their voice. Write down the deportation officer’s name and number from the locator result and keep it somewhere everyone in the family can find it.

Then move on the legal track without delay. Immigration custody runs on a clock, and decisions about bond, transfers, and removal can happen quickly, so the single most important next step is getting a licensed immigration attorney involved while the person is still local. None of the steps on this page are legal advice, and the locator does not explain anyone’s rights or options. Our role stays squarely on locating and reaching people lawfully; the legal strategy belongs with counsel who can act on it.

Before you open the locator, pull together a small packet so you are not guessing field by field. Find the person’s full legal name exactly as it appears on their immigration documents, including the order of first, middle, and last names and any maiden name, because the system matches what is on file, not the nickname everyone uses. Confirm the date of birth and the country of birth, which are both required for a name search and are surprisingly easy to misremember for someone who arrived young. Hunt down the A-Number on a green card, work permit, visa stamp, or prior immigration notice, since it is the one input that makes a clean match. Note where and roughly when the arrest happened, because that tells you which field office and which agency to call if the website draws a blank. Finally, locate the contact details for any relative who holds those documents. With this packet in hand, a search that would have failed on a spelling now has a real chance, and if it still comes up empty, you have handed your investigators and an attorney exactly what they need to keep going. For a legitimate, permissible-purpose request, our team can usually return an initial locate within 24 hours.