Since mid-September, if you search ICE’s online detainee locator for someone with a final deportation order, the system no longer tells you where that person is. Four legal aid groups, led by Boston’s Greater Boston Legal Services, sued the Department of Homeland Security in federal court in Boston on October 28, 2026, to make the government put that information back. “This case is about the federal government’s disappearance of thousands of detained people, cutting them off from contact with their lawyers and loved ones,” the 28-page complaint begins.
DHS denies it is disappearing anyone. “Illegal aliens in detention have several ways to communicate with their family members and lawyers,” the department said in a statement responding to the lawsuit, The Associated Press reported via WBUR. “The appropriate process due to an illegal alien with final deportation orders is removal, plain and simple.”
The case is Greater Boston Legal Services, Inc. v. Mullin, No. 1:26-cv-14869 (D. Mass.), assigned to U.S. District Judge Allison D. Burroughs. We read the complaint in full. Its claims are allegations; the government has not yet responded in court.
What changed
- The locator. ICE’s Online Detainee Locator System has let the public look up where someone is held since 2010, by A-number and country of birth, or by full name, country of birth and date of birth, the complaint says. Lawyers and families have used it to track people as they are moved between facilities, the AP reported.
- The policy. On or about September 15, 2026, DHS stopped showing the locations of detainees with administratively final removal orders, the complaint says. The AP first reported the change, and said that as of last month it affected more than 16,000 of the nearly 69,000 people in ICE custody. Staff were also told not to reveal those detainees’ whereabouts, the AP reported.
- The government’s position. ICE and DHS have not publicly confirmed the change, but have said they are prioritizing people with final removal orders for deportation and are facing a “historic number of injunctions,” according to the AP.
Who is suing, and what they say it costs them
The plaintiffs are Greater Boston Legal Services and Rian Immigrant Center, both based in Boston; the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project in Arizona; and the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights in Washington, D.C. According to the complaint:
- Lawyers are spending “significantly more time” trying to find clients, and in some cases have not been able to locate potential clients at all.
- Calls to ICE, including its Detention and Removal Information Line, “lead to long wait times on hold, sudden hang-ups, a general lack of information or no answer at all,” the AP reported, quoting the complaint.
- The groups say the result has been delayed or missed legal filings and fewer new cases taken.
“No one should be denied a meaningful opportunity to defend their rights because the government has made it impossible for their lawyer to find them,” said Jacquelynne Bowman, executive director of Greater Boston Legal Services, according to the AP.
The complaint says the groups are not challenging any client’s removal order, detention, or deportation case. They are challenging the locator policy itself.
The legal claims
- Arbitrary and capricious. The Administrative Procedure Act tells courts to “hold unlawful and set aside agency action” that is “arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, or otherwise not in accordance with law,” 5 U.S.C. § 706(2)(A). The complaint argues DHS reversed a 16-year practice without giving the reasoned explanation the law requires when an agency changes position, and without weighing the reliance of lawyers and families on the locator.
- Contrary to constitutional right. Section 706(2)(B) also requires courts to set aside action “contrary to constitutional right.” The groups say the policy violates the First Amendment because it blocks them from reaching clients and prospective clients. They rely on NAACP v. Button, 371 U.S. 415 (1963), in which the Supreme Court held that the NAACP’s litigation activities, including its lawyers’ work, were “modes of expression and association protected by the First and Fourteenth Amendments.”
- Freedom of Information Act. The complaint says DHS never published the policy, as 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(2) requires for certain agency policies, and asks the court to order it released.
What they are asking for
The groups ask Burroughs to declare the policy unlawful, vacate it, and in the meantime stay it under 5 U.S.C. § 705, which allows a reviewing court, “to the extent necessary to prevent irreparable injury,” to “postpone the effective date of an agency action or to preserve status or rights pending conclusion of the review proceedings.” Burroughs granted the groups leave on October 29 to file a supporting memorandum longer than the usual page limit, the docket shows.
Frequently asked questions
Why can’t I find someone on the ICE detainee locator?
Since about September 15, 2026, the Online Detainee Locator System no longer shows the location of people with final removal orders, according to a federal lawsuit and AP reporting. DHS has not publicly confirmed the change.
Who sued over the ICE locator change?
Greater Boston Legal Services, Rian Immigrant Center, the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project and the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights, in federal court in Boston on October 28, 2026. The case is No. 1:26-cv-14869.
What does a final order of removal mean?
An immigration judge has ordered the person deported, and the order was upheld on appeal or not appealed in time. People with final orders can still ask to reopen their cases or challenge conditions of detention in some circumstances.
Sources: Complaint, Greater Boston Legal Services, Inc. v. Mullin, No. 1:26-cv-14869-ADB (D. Mass. filed Oct. 28, 2026), read in full, and the court docket; The Associated Press via WBUR, October 29, 2026. 5 U.S.C. §§ 705 and 706 read at Cornell’s Legal Information Institute. NAACP v. Button, 371 U.S. 415 (1963), read on CourtListener. The complaint’s claims are allegations. General information, not legal advice.