Updated Nov. 12, 2026: We removed a motive we had given for ICE in our own words, added ICE's stated reason, and shortened the story.
Since Sept. 15, ICE's public online locator has stopped showing most people in immigration detention who have a final deportation order. Families and lawyers use the free site to find where someone is held. On Nov. 10, The New York Times reported that it had obtained a Homeland Security document announcing the change.
Whose numbers
No agency has published a count. Using ICE data, lawyers suing ICE say 21,700 of the 66,904 people held on an average day in July had final orders. That is 32%. Their July count includes four sites where court orders keep ICE listing people. The AP and the Times both say tens of thousands are affected.
What DHS says
ICE and the Department of Homeland Security, or DHS, neither confirmed nor denied the change to the AP in September and October. The Times says DHS announced it in the document.
DHS says people with final orders already had due process. "The appropriate process due to an illegal alien with final deportation orders is removal, plain and simple," it said. ICE says that "despite a historic number of injunctions," court orders that stop some removals, it is "working rapidly and overtime" to deport these people. The groups suing call that the only apparent explanation, and say it implies an aim to keep people from lawyers and courts.
Critics call the policy "disappearing" people. A columnist for Documented, an immigration news site, had been "leery" of the word. But now "there's no other term" for it, the columnist wrote. DHS says ICE does not "disappear" people. It says all detainees "have opportunities to communicate with their family members and lawyers." More than 45 House Democrats wrote that detainees are not always able to call, due to cost or busy phones.
DHS also told NBC4 that such claims harm officers. It counts 647 assaults on ICE staff in the 20 months to September, against 37 in the same span under President Biden. A 2025 public radio review of an earlier DHS claim counted assault charges in court records and found a far smaller rise.
Who is affected
A final order means a judge ordered a person deported, and appeals ended or were never filed. Scott Mechkowski is a retired ICE official. He says federal law "directs the government to detain and remove aliens under final orders, and gives it 90 days to do it." Lawyers say options remain. A person can ask to reopen a case, or file a habeas petition asking a judge for release. That usually must be filed where the person is held. The American Immigration Council, a pro-immigrant group, says lawyers may still file when the jailer is an "unknown custodian."
Ann Lawani, a California nursing professor, was arrested on Sept. 16 and moved to Louisiana. DHS said she "received due process and was issued a final order of removal" in 2013. Townhall, a conservative site, said Democrats seeking her release ignore that order. Her lawyer says the 2013 judge also barred sending her to Nigeria, where she would "more likely than not face persecution." ICE may still seek another country. A federal judge kept her case in California, finding "no diligent attorney could have known" where she was. Nurse.org, a nursing news site, found her still missing from the locator on Nov. 11, nearly eight weeks after she reached Louisiana.
The lawsuit
Four immigrant legal aid groups sued DHS and ICE in Boston federal court on Oct. 28. ICE created the locator itself in 2010, and Congress never required it, the Documented columnist wrote. The groups say ICE cut people from a system it ran for 16 years "without an adequate explanation." On Nov. 4, they asked Judge Allison Burroughs to pause the policy. Under court rules, the government's reply is due about Nov. 18. There was no ruling as of early Nov. 12.
Reporting through Thursday, November 12, 2026. Sources: Associated Press, Sept. 21, 2026; American Immigration Council, Sept. 23, 2026; Fox News, Sept. 24, 2026; Associated Press, Sept. 30, 2026; Escobar-Rivas letter to ICE, Sept. 30, 2026; NBC4 (WCMH), Oct. 1, 2026; Documented, Oct. 2, 2026; KPBS, Oct. 27, 2026; complaint, Greater Boston Legal Services v. Mullin, Oct. 28, 2026; Associated Press via LAist, Oct. 29, 2026; plaintiffs' stay motion, Nov. 4, 2026; Daily Caller, Nov. 5, 2026; The New York Times, Nov. 10, 2026; Nurse.org, Nov. 11, 2026; Townhall, Nov. 11, 2026; court docket via Clearinghouse, updated Nov. 12, 2026; D. Mass. Local Rule 7.1; NPR via WLRN, Oct. 10, 2025.
