AP: ICE stops publishing locations for thousands of detainees with final removal orders

NEW: @apnews.com confirms that ICE has begun electronically "disappearing" people in the agency's custody who have final orders of removal. As of last week, anyone jailed by ICE with a final order of removal will NOT appear in the ICE Online Detainee Locator System, making them effectively vanish.

ICE is purposefully trying to make it harder for lawyers and loved ones to contact people held in detention, making it nearly impossible for some people to challenge their removals. ICE must let the outside world know where they are detaining people.

Hospitalization on top of normal booking delay would probably keep him invisible on the locator for a bit regardless, but possibly another issue at play here: Since last week ICE has appeared to be excluding EVERY detainee with a final order of removal from showing up in the online locator.

ICE’s detention system is at a record size. Now ICE is making thousands of people even harder to find. Hiding the location of people with final deportation orders makes it more difficult for lawyers and families to reach them, and for people to challenge their detention and removal in court.

ICE is erasing immigrants with final deportation orders from a searchable online database, leaving families and attorneys in the dark as they try to find out where someone has been taken. www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...

“Families are freaking out because they think the person has been deported and they don’t know where the person might be,” [Greg Chen with the American Immigration Lawyers Association] said. “On the attorney side, this has serious implications for the ability to contact their client."

Every quote in this article is harrowing. ICE is disappearing people to make it harder for them to resist the violations of their rights. “‘If you can’t find your client, don’t know what’s happening to your client, you can’t get that information to the court to stop their removal,’ [Ngo] said.”

ICE "has stopped publicly revealing where it is holding thousands of detainees who are subject to final deportation orders, an unannounced move that has made it far more difficult for lawyers and relatives to find them, according to current and former officials familiar with the practice."

"Several lawyers contacted by The Associated Press confirmed their clients vanished from the system this week, and the American Immigration Lawyers Association warned its members about the situation Friday." apnews.com/article/ice-...

We have fallen so far - can we claw our way out? ""Critics reacted with horror to a Monday report from The Associated Press detailing how US Immigration and Customs Enforcement has abruptly ended its practice of disclosing the locations of thousands of detainees.""

Our office has been receiving calls from families who were unable to find loved ones on the Online Detainee Locator System, and this report confirms why. This move by the Trump Admin marks another dark, dangerous attempt to disappear mass amounts of people from our communities.

Now they are hiding the location of immigrants in detention centers so that they have no ability to contact legal council. Please share this. Thousands of people have vanished from publicly visible records. This is kidnapping. #abolishICE apnews.com/article/ice-...

ICE makes 16K detainees vanish from its own system: 'Families are freaking out' - Raw Story www.rawstory.com/ice-26779087...

Another reminder of the cruelty of the Trump Administration and the Republicans who are supporting him. ICE detainees are kidnapped and isolated in secret locations. Their loved ones cannot find them or hear from them and they do not have access to legal counsel. apnews.com/article/ice-...

AP Exclusive: ICE hides locations of thousands of detainees with final removal orders apnews.com/article/ice-...