09/12/2025
Helpful Things to Know in Case You Are Detained by ICE, provided from a follower who works as a healthcare professional inside the corrections system. This person shared these insider tips with me to share with you! These tips could help someone being detained by ICE, so please share with anyone and everyone you think can benefit from them!
* MEMORIZE IMPORTANT PHONE NUMBERS. ICE will take your phone from you, and it will be difficult to retrieve phone numbers once they have it. People arrive at the detention centers (or jails) with no way to contact their loved ones because they don't have access to their phones. It will be much less stressful if you know at least one phone number so you can let your people know where you are and what happened.
* IF YOU ARE ABLE, KEEP SOME CASH ON YOU. After your first phone call, you have to have money to make additional calls. (Unused money WILL be returned to you in the form of a check, or sometimes a debit card, when you are released, even if you are deported.)
* IF YOU HAVE A VALID GREEN CARD OR WORK PERMIT, KEEP IT ON YOU. While this may not prevent you from being detained, it could potentially help your case during processing.
* COOPERATE WITH THE BOOKING PROCESS ONCE YOU ARE AT THE FACILITY. You are justified in not trusting anyone, however, it is necessary to complete and sign your booking paperwork to get processed. Getting processed is NOT an admission of guilt. You will not be able to make any phone calls, be assigned a bed, or be released until this process is complete.
* YOUR DETENTION DOES NOT MEAN THE STAFF BELIEVE YOU ARE A CRIMINAL. Most jail staff do not support or agree with what is happening to you. Understand that we know this experience must be awful, and it is difficult for the majority of us to witness.