What is an Immigration Detainer?

ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) is a U.S. federal agency that operates within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). This agency is responsible for enforcing immigration laws, preserving national security, and protecting public safety by preventing terrorism and managing the detention and deportation of individuals who violate immigration laws. One of the ways ICE accomplishes these goals is through the use of an immigration detainer. For more information and to secure skilled legal advice, contact a deportation and removal defense attorney in NYC today.

What is an Immigration Detainer?

An immigration detainer is a formal request made by ICE to a local law enforcement agency asking that they hold an arrested individual for up to 48 hours after their release date. When an individual is arrested by law enforcement, officers will run the person’s name and fingerprints through databases to gather information like their criminal history. During this process, they may discover that the individual is undocumented, meaning that they came to the United States illegally or they do not have a valid legal status in the country.

If the police or law enforcement agency discovers that the individual is undocumented, they will often inform ICE. ICE will likely want to assume custody of the person once their criminal charges are handled. However, depending on the circumstances of the situation, they may need additional time to gather evidence and information that allows them to do so.

An immigration detainer, also referred to as an ICE hold, requests that the agency continue detaining the individual for 48 hours past the time they should be released to facilitate the transfer of custody from one agency to another.

What Are NYC’s Laws Regarding ICE Hold Requests?

It is important to note that an immigration detainer is a request, not a demand. Compliance with ICE’s request is at the discretion of the law enforcement agency. New York City passed laws in 2014 limiting the power of an immigration hold.

Int. 0487-2014 states that the NYPD will only honor an immigration detainer “if it was accompanied by a warrant from a federal judge, and also only if that person had been convicted of a “violent or serious” crime during the last five years or was listed on a terrorist database.”

The request can also be honored without a warrant if the individual has been convicted of a violent or serious crime or may be a match on the federal terrorist watch list and has been deported in the past.

Without an official warrant or evidence of the individual’s serious or violent criminal history, the NYPD has the total authority to reject the request to continue detaining the individual. If ICE is unable to produce a judicial warrant or pick up the individual within the 48-hour window, the law enforcement agency must release them.

To learn more about your legal rights and options after being arrested, reach out to a skilled immigration lawyer today.