Featured Issue: Representing Clients Before ICE
This resource page combines resources for attorneys representing clients before ICE. For information about why AILA is calling for the reduction and phasing out of immigration detention, please see our Featured Issue Page: Immigration Detention and Alternatives to Detention.
Quick Links
- Seeking Stays of Removal
- AILA Practice Pointers and Alerts (continually updated)
- Practice Advisory: Representing Detained Clients in the Virtual Landscape
- Practice Pointer: How to Locate Clients Apprehended by ICE
- Practice Pointer: Preparing for an Order of Supervision Appointment with ICE-ERO
- AILA ICE Liaison Agenda and Meeting Minutes
Communicating with OPLA, ERO, and CROs
The Office of the Principal Legal Advisor (OPLA) includes 1300 attorneys who represent the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in immigration removal proceedings before the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR). OPLA litigates all removal cases as well as provides legal counsel to ICE personnel. At present, there are 25 field locations throughout the United States.
Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) manages all aspects of immigration enforcement from arrest, detention, and removal. ERO has 24 field office locations. ERO also manages an “alternative to detention” program that relies almost exclusively on the “Intensive Supervision Appearance Program (ISAP)” to monitor individuals in removal proceedings.
Since 2016, ICE has had an Office of Partnership and Engagement (formerly Office of Community Engagement) to be a link between the agency and stakeholders. As part of this office, Community Relations Officers (CROS) are assigned to every field office to work with local stakeholders such as attorneys and nonprofit organizations.
*Headquarters does not provide direct contact numbers or emails for individual employees.* (AILA Liaison Meeting with ICE on April 26, 2023)(AILA Doc. No. 23033004). However, attorneys can contact Chapter Local ICE Liaisons as they may have this information provided to them via local liaison engagement.
- DHS/ICE/OPLA Chief Counsel Contact Information [last updated in 2024, this list no longer appears on ICE.gov as of 1/27/25]
- Contact Information for Local OPLA Offices [last updated in 2024, this information no longer appears on ICE.gov as of 1/27/25]
- ERO Field Offices Contact Information*
- OPE Community Relations Officers
- ICE Check-In Scheduling Website
- ICE Online Change of Address Website
Latest on Enforcement Priorities & Prosecutorial Discretion
Executive Order 14159 (90 FR 8443, 1/29/25) directs DHS to set priorities that protect the public safety and national security interests of the American people, including by ensuring the successful enforcement of final orders of removal, enforcement of the INA and other Federal laws related to the illegal entry and unlawful presence of [noncitizens] in the United States and the enforcement of the purposes of this order. Given the January 25, 2025, confirmation of DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, a memorandum detailing enforcement priorities may be issued in the coming weeks.
An unpublished ICE memo from acting ICE Director Caleb Vitello entitled “Interim Guidance: Civil Immigration Enforcement Actions in or near Courthouses” makes reference to targeted noncitizens and includes:
- National security or public safety threats;
- Those with criminal convictions;
- Gang members;
- Those who have been ordered removed from the United States but have failed to depart; and/or
- Those who have re-entered the country illegally after being removed.
Procedures and email inboxes created under the Biden Administration to request Prosecutorial Discretion no longer appear on the ICE website. AILA members are encouraged to review current DOJ regulations entitled “Efficient Case and Docket Management in Immigration Proceedings” for alternative basis for seeking termination or administrative closure.
Access to Counsel
- ERO eFile:
- An online system developed to electronically file G-28s with ERO. Attorneys and accredited representatives may register for ERO eFile accounts and may also sponsor law students and law graduates who work under their supervision. See AILA’s practice alert (AILA Doc. No. 24051506) for more information.
- ICE Attorney Information and Resources Page
- AILA Practice Alert: Updates to the ICE Attorney Information and Resource Page
Filing Administrative Complaints on Behalf of Detained and Formerly Detained Clients
- Online Intake Form for the Detention Ombudsman (myOIDO)
- Available for complaints for issues in ICE and CBP Custody nationwide, including to submit complaints about access to counsel problems on behalf of currently or previously detained clients.
- Online Complaint Form for DHS Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL)
- Oversight of Immigration Detention: An Overview - May 16, 2022
(provides a list of agencies with which attorneys may file administrative complaints of detention center violations) - Immigration Judge Complaint Toolkit – August 31, 2022
- Practice Alert: Template for CRCL Complaint Regarding Failures to Provide Language Access – July 16, 2021
Selected ICE Policies and Current Status
For comprehensive comparison of current and prior ICE policies, please review the “Immigration Policy Tracker (IPTP).” The IPTP is a project of Professor Lucas Guttentag working with teams of Stanford and Yale law students and leading national immigration experts.
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Browse the Featured Issue: Representing Clients Before ICE collection
AILA Notes from SCOPS Teleconference (9/24/14)
AILA notes from a teleconference with SCOPS on 9/24/14. Topics include pre-adjudication of adjustment applications, RFEs for marriage and birth certificates, EAD processing times for Forms I-817, DACA renewal processing times, H-1B cap exemptions, EB-1-1 RFEs, and Matter of Lee.
AILA: Administration Trying to Drag Mothers and Children Back to Detention
In response to the Administration appealing bond decisions for some mothers and children released from Artesia, AILA President Leslie Holman stated, “I am utterly outraged by the latest tactics the Obama Administration has used to inflict needless misery on mothers and children seeking asylum.”
AILA: Expansion of Family Detention Means the United States Will Jail More Victims of Violence
AILA President Leslie Holman reacts to confirmation that a massive family detention facility will open in Texas saying, “You can call it a ‘Family Residential Center’ but it is a prison. Dilley will be the largest immigration detention facility nationwide—all for the purpose of jailing families.”
CA9 Remands CAT Claim for Further Proceedings
In an unpublished decision, the court remanded after finding that there was substantial evidence that the police did not provide the petitioner protection and noting changes in case law regarding the particular social group claim. Courtesy of Shara Svendsen.
BIA Holds Florida Third Degree Theft Not a CIMT
Unpublished BIA decision terminates proceedings upon finding third degree grand theft under Fla. Stat. 812.014 is not a CIMT and notes it reached same result in prior unpublished decision. Special thanks to IRAC. (Matter of Alvarez Fernandez, 9/23/14)
BIA Reverses IJ For Providing Required Advisals During Bond Proceedings
Unpublished BIA decision remands record because the IJ provided numerous required advisals during bond proceedings rather than removal proceedings. Special thanks to IRAC. (Matter of Deleon, 9/23/14)
BIA Says Respondent Is Ineligible for Cancellation of Removal
The BIA held an alien is ineligible for cancellation under INA §240A(b)(1)(C), if he falls within the scope of INA §212(a)(2)(B), for being convicted of two or more offenses for which the aggregate sentences imposed were five years or more. Matter of Pina-Galindo, 26 I&N Dec. 423 (BIA 2014)
CA2 Says Smuggling Bar Applies to Federal Aiding and Abetting Statute
Unpublished decision upholding the BIA’s finding that the smuggling bar under INA §212(a)(6)(E)(i) applies to an aiding and abetting conviction under 8 USC §1325(a)(1) and prevents a showing of good moral character, and also declining to apply categorical approach. Courtesy of Alison Berry.
CA1 Affirms Denial of Motion to Reopen
The court found the BIA did not abuse its discretion in denying the motion to reopen, finding petitioner was ineligible for adjustment as he did not voluntarily depart when required and he did not comply with ineffective assistance of counsel requirements. (Taveras-Duran v. Holder, 9/23/14)
CA9 Says CA Attempted Arson Is an Aggravated Felony (Updated 11/6/14)
The court held a conviction for attempted arson in violation of California Penal Code §455 was an aggravated felony and the additional element in the federal explosive materials statute is a purely jurisdictional element to be disregarded. (Sandoval-Gomez v. Holder, 9/22/14, vacated 10/24/14)
BIA Remands for Application of Realistic Probability Test in Moncrieffe and Duenas-Alvarez
The BIA held where a state statute covers a substance not included in a federal statute’s generic definition, there must be a realistic probability that the state would prosecute conduct falling outside the generic crime to defeat removability. Matter of Ferreira, 26 I&N Dec. 415 (BIA 2014)
BIA Reverses IJ For Considering Allegations in Complaint Unrelated to Crime of Conviction
Unpublished BIA decision remands for further consideration of whether stalking under Minn. Stat. 609.749(2)(1) is a CIMT whereas because the complaint on which the IJ relied did not charged the respondent with other offenses. Special thanks to IRAC. (Matter of Enriquez, 9/22/14)
AILA's Take on Asylum for Detained Families
AILA’s take on the Obama administration’s decision to deny asylum to Central American families fleeing violence.
Family Detention Case Examples
A compilation of case examples of mothers and children detained at the Artesia family detention center.
AILA's Take on Family Detention
AILA calls on the Obama administration to stop the mass detention and rapid deportation of Central American mothers and children in this backgrounder document.
AILA's Take on Bond for Detained Families
AILA backgrounder on the Obama Administration’s decision to denying bond to all Central American families being detained.
House Briefing on Family Detention
A 9/22/14 AILA-sponsored briefing in the House on family detention.
ICE to Open Additional Facility in South Texas to House Adults with Children
ICE announcement that it plans to open and operate a new facility in early November in Dilley, Texas to detain adults with children in response to the influx of individuals apprehended along the Southwest border. Facility has capacity for 2,400 individuals.
ICE Shares Stories from Artesia Detention Facility Demonstrating Humanitarian Mission
ICE press release sharing the experiences ICE employees at the Family Residential Facility in Artesia. Stories included how a HSI special agent used his skills as an EMT to help a toddler experiencing a seizure and how agents and officers have been teaching children there American football.
EOIR to Close El Centro, California Immigration Court
EOIR announcement that it will close its El Centro Immigration Court in California on September 30, 2014, as a result of DHS’s decision to close this location as a primary place of detention for respondents in removal proceedings, and the new hearing location will be the Imperial Immigration Court.
AILA Quicktake #97: Deputy Secretary Mayorkas' Speech and Artesia Hearings
AILA's Director of Advocacy Greg Chen sits down to provide a recap on Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas' appearance at the National Press Club this week. Chen also discusses the immigration court proceedings happening for detainees in Artesia.
Letter to Vice President Biden on Pro Bono Representation
A 9/19/14 letter from AILA and other legal services organizations urging the Administration to take action to remove impediments to access to counsel for children and families.
BIA Holds IJ Should Have Reviewed Initial I-485
Unpublished BIA vacates denial of I-485 due lack of healthcare worker certification and instructs IJ to determine whether resubmitted I-485 should be treated as renewed application and whether a continued offer of employment exists. Special thanks to IRAC. (Matter of Kim, 9/19/14)
AILA Amicus Brief Requesting BIA to Reexamine Adoption of Circumstance-Specific Methodology
AILA amicus brief to the BIA requesting the reexamination of its adoption of a circumstance-specific inquiry for the exception clause of the controlled substance ground of removability in light of Moncrieffe v. Holder and the continued validity of Matter of Davey.
CA9 Finds CHS §11351 Conviction Is Neither Aggravated Felony Nor Controlled Substance Offense (Withdrawn) (Updated 10/20/14)
The court vacated the removal order, applying the modified categorical approach and finding that the conviction under §11351 of the California Health and Safety Code (CHS) was neither an aggravated felony nor a controlled substance offense. (Medina v. Holder, 9/19/14; withdrawn 10/10/14)