ICE Transfers Detainees Across States More Frequently Under Current Policy

Immigration and Customs Enforcement moved detainees between facilities more often during the first year of the current administration than in the final year of the previous one. A Marshall Project analysis of ICE detention data found the number of people transferred five or more times more than tripled. The number transferred out of state within 24 hours more than doubled.

Lawyers report that repeated transfers can interrupt contact with counsel and delay filing of legal petitions. Habeas corpus petitions must be filed in the district where a person is held, so movement before filing requires new filings in new locations.

An ICE spokesperson stated that all detainees receive full due process and that claims transfers are being weaponized are categorically false. The spokesperson added that detainees have phone access, receive a list of free or low-cost attorneys, and can be located through the agency’s online system.

2025 the Department of Homeland Security adopted a new interpretation of a 1996 immigration law that treats certain long-term residents as arriving aliens ineligible for bond hearings. In September the Board of Immigration Appeals made that interpretation binding nationwide.

Federal courts remain divided on the policy. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld it, and nearly three-quarters of deportations in the first year of the current term involved people last held in states within that circuit.

Mohamed, who entered the United States from Somalia in 1999, was detained by ICE near Portland, Maine, in October 2025. After more than seven weeks in Massachusetts, he was moved through Mississippi and Louisiana before deportation to Somalia. His family received location updates from his lawyer and from another detainee’s spouse rather than from ICE.

His sister said each update arrived too late and never came directly from the agency.