ICE Custody In DC Mandatory Detention Cases
In practice, the most common way is for an individual to be convicted or charged with a crime that will subject them to mandatory detention and then be detained for the criminal offense first. Once they have served their time for the criminal offense, they’ll be transferred to ICE custody. ICE will then issue something called a Notice to Appear, or, if they have a prior order of deportation, they can just deport them without a hearing in front of the immigration judge. But generally, it’s after someone has been detained for a criminal reason.
Relationship Between ICE and Local Authorities
This varies greatly from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. If you are detained for a criminal reason and you do not have valid immigration status or have violated your immigration status in some way, you should definitely contact an immigration attorney right away because different criminal facilities have different procedures.
Some facilities directly contact ICE if they suspect someone of being undocumented. On the other hand, some of them don’t really communicate with ICE and will not do ICE the courtesy of detaining someone for longer than they are supposed to be criminally detained to wait for ICE to show up.
Being Placed in ICE Custody
Generally, it’s after you’re convicted, as long as you’re in some sort of lawful status. But for some offenses, if ICE has a strong reason to believe that you have committed the crime with which you’ve been charged, you can still be subject to mandatory detention before you’ve been convicted.
In some cases, you can also be detained just by being charged with a criminal offense, or being detained for a suspected criminal violation for which you were never charged. This happens when you’re here without status. If you have overstayed your legal immigration status or you’re just undocumented, you can land on ICE’s radar by just being detained, with or without charges.
There is a 48-hour window that criminal detention facilities can utilize to hold you over the time that they would ordinarily detain you for criminal reasons. These 48 hours is used to give ICE time to come and determine whether or not there are individuals that they can take into custody.
It doesn’t have to happen immediately, but it generally has to happen within 48 hours. Also, if you’re lucky and your detention facility does not want to extend your criminal detention to wait for ICE to come around to pick you up, then you could just be released.
There are differences in the way that local jurisdictions interpret the transfer of individuals from criminal detention to ICE custody. But, ICE can pick you up for a criminal offense that triggered mandatory detention at any time after that conviction. It doesn’t have to happen directly after you’re criminally detained. The only exception is if you’re released from detention for a criminal conviction that occurred prior to 1998. But for current offenses, ICE can pick you up and you’re susceptible to detention at any time, even if your case has been closed years ago.
ICE Hold
An ICE hold is basically a notice that ICE gives to a criminal holding facility that states that you should not be released even if your criminal bond is paid or you have served the amount of time you’ve been sentenced to. It will cause you to be released directly from criminal custody in to ICE custody.
Recent ICE Policies
ICE hold policies have changed because there has been some pushback in recent years and months from local criminal detention facilities. This is a positive thing, because, in the past, most criminal detention facilities were happy to detain somebody beyond the time that they were legally allowed to be criminally detained just to wait for ICE to do their rounds. This resulted in the prolonged and often unjustified detention of people who should have been released. There was very little oversight or accountability for these prolonged detentions.
Many criminal facilities have now decided not to comply with that waiting period. They’ve changed their policies to say that if ICE wants to put a hold on an individual, they have to do it immediately when a criminal sentence is served or when the criminal custody ends.