Friday, July 23, 2010

ICE Launches Online Detainee Locator System To Track Aliens In Custody

Data available of all detainee deaths from 2003 to present

By H. Nelson Goodson
July 23, 2010

Washington, D.C. - To promote the recent detention reform change at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the agency has launched the Online Detainee Locator System (ODLS) for families, attorney's and interested parties to locate ICE detainees. The ODLS link http://bit.ly/cVEXiB is now accessible to the public and at the ICE home page, where individuals can locate family members detained and the location where they are being held in custody. The system provides a page where a name, date of birth, country of origin and alien registration number can be entered. The detainee information will then become available showing the detention center, state and contact number for the ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations office in the region where the facility is located. 
A brochure explaining how to use the ODLS is also available on the website in the following languages: English, Spanish, French, Mandarin, Vietnamese Portuguese, Russian, Arabic and Somali.
"The ODLS is an easy, accessible tool that allows family members and counsel to locate an individual in ICE custody in a matter of minutes," said Phyllis Coven, acting director of ICE's Office of Detention Policy and Planning, "ICE is making great strides in our effort to translate the principles of reform into innovative, practical and timely solutions."
Since, the ODLS will be available for use on ICE's public website, the agency is committed to ensuring detainee privacy while making ODLS a useful tool for family members, attorneys and other related parties. Therefore, responses to ODLS queries are only generated, if the data entered is an exact match of data in the system.
On Aug. 6, 2009, ICE Assistant Secretary John Morton announced that the agency was undertaking sweeping reforms of the immigration detention system to improve medical and mental healthcare, conditions of confinement, fiscal prudence and ICE's critical oversight of the system. ICE's Office of Detention Policy and Planning (ODPP) was also created in August 2009 to spearhead the agency's detention reform efforts, acording to ICE.

An ODLS brochure is available in different languages by visiting the following: http://bit.ly/9w8LHX

Download all detainee deaths from 2003 to present: http://bit.ly/aEBB43

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