TL;DR:
ICE arrests in San Diego are on the rise, and when a loved one is suddenly detained, knowing how to find them — and how to help — becomes crucial. This guide explains how to locate someone in ICE custody, what to do when online tools fail, and how immigration bonds work in San Diego.
Readers will learn:
- How ICE arrests in San Diego work and why detainees are sometimes moved away from their local area
- How to use the ICE detainee locator, including search tips from NILC
- What to do if the locator doesn’t show results — including contacting the ICE San Diego field office
- When to reach out to immigration attorneys or legal aid organizations for additional help
- How immigration bonds work and how to secure one for a loved one’s release
Arrests are sudden and disruptive events. When a loved one is arrested before being formally charged with a crime, the natural reaction is to want to help them exit custody and return to their normal, everyday life.
That’s true for arrests by local and state law enforcement agencies as well as federal ones, such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). With ICE arrests on a sharp rise in 2025, it’s unfortunately more common for people in San Diego and across the country to have a friend or loved one arrested and detained by this agency.
So, what can you do to help a loved one with ICE arrests in San Diego? How can you find them, whether they’re at the ICE detention center in San Diego or another location? And, can you get an immigration bond to help them exit custody? Learn more here.
Need help with an immigration bond right now? Our team is here to help, 24/7. Reach out to our local San Diego office to get the process started.
How to Find Someone Detained by ICE
The first step to helping a friend or loved one detained by ICE is to locate them. Whether you want to help them find an immigration attorney, exit custody, or provide any other kind of support, you need to know where they are.
Unfortunately, legal resource website Nolo reports that some immigration experts believe ICE moves arrestees away from their local areas to restrict their ability to get in touch with their families and lawyers. This practice is currently being challenged in federal courts as of late 2025, and the outcomes of those challenges aren’t yet clear.
While these transfers of people in pre-trial detention make the process more difficult and put additional emotional strain on friends and loved ones, there are ways to search for someone placed in custody by ICE.
The ICE Inmate Locator
The first option to consider for finding a friend or loved one arrested by ICE in San Diego is to use the organization’s detainee locator system. The ICE inmate locator for California and across the country does not include every person arrested by ICE, but does include many people who have been in custody for more than 48 hours.
This tool offers two methods to look up someone held in detention by ICE:
- By A-Number and country of birth. A-Numbers are individual and unique identifiers assigned by ICE to the people they detain. If you know your friend or loved one’s A-Number and their country of birth, you can look up their location and other basic information relatively easily.
- By name, birthdate, and country of origin. This option is especially useful for people recently detained by ICE, as they likely do not have an A-Number or that number is not yet known by their friends and family. To search for a detainee using this option, you need to enter their name exactly as it was spelled by ICE during the intake process, and have their full birthdate and country of origin available.
For most people dealing with a recent ICE arrest of a friend or loved one, an A-Number is likely not available. So, you’ll have to use the search by name, birthdate, and country of origin option. When using this type of search, keep the following ICE online detainee locator search tips from the National Immigration Law Center (NILC) in mind:
- The name search is based on information entered at the time your friend or loved one was detained. You may need to try variations on the spelling of their actual name or reversing their first and last name in the search fields.
- Minors, i.e., people under the age of 18, will not appear in the results offered by the online detainee locator.
- If you do find your friend or loved one in the system, take a screenshot of the details. It can be valuable to have this information as you or their lawyer works toward a release.
Try the ICE San Diego Field Office
If the online locator doesn’t return information about your friend or loved one, you can reach out to the ICE San Diego field office to try to speak to an agent over the phone.
The phone number for the San Diego Enforcement and Removal Operations Office (ERO) as of early December 2025 is (619) 436-0410. You can double-check this detail on the ICE office locations page. You can also try emailing the office at SanDiego.Outreach@ice.dhs.gov.
You may need to call or email multiple times to get a response. Avoid sharing more information than is needed to find your friend or loved one – specifically, the name, birthdate, and country of origin that you would enter into the detainee search tool.
Once you speak to an ICE employee and confirm that your friend or loved one is held in the San Diego immigration detention center, request the name and contact details for the agent in charge of the case. As NILC explains, this info can be very useful when working toward a release.
Reach Out to an Immigration Attorney or Legal Aid Group
Unfortunately, it’s not always as simple as it should be to find a person held in ICE custody. If you can’t locate your loved one or friend through the methods outlined above, it may be time to reach out to a pro bono (free) or low-cost immigration lawyer or legal aid group.
Justia maintains a list of these resources in the San Diego area. Even if these lawyers and groups can’t directly help you find the person you’re looking for, they can point you toward others who can.
Immigration Bonds in San Diego
Bail Hotline can help you secure the release of your friend or loved one from a detention facility with an immigration bond. If you locate your friend or loved one and need a bond to secure their exit from detention, we’re here to support you 24/7. Reach out to our local San Diego office to get the process started.
