Check ICE Custody Transfers

Andrews Release or ICE Transfer

An ICE detainer can affect what happens after a local case reaches a release point. If Andrews County turns a person over to immigration authorities, county custody ends but government custody continues. The accurate phrase is “transferred to ICE,” not “released,” unless a later ICE record establishes release from immigration detention. The same caution applies when the county record names USMS, TDCJ, or another county as the destination.

Start with the Andrews County Sheriff's release entry. Request the booking identity, release date and time, release type or code, releasing authority, holds, and destination. The official sheriff page identifies the county jail channels, the county directory provides the current jail contact, and the sheriff's electronic open-records form accepts a defined request and attachments. A court dismissal or bond order can explain the local case, but it does not establish whether an immigration hold caused an immediate transfer.

Search the ICE Locator

The ICE Online Detainee Locator System provides two search methods. Use the A-number route when that identifier and country of birth are legitimately known. The A-number is nine digits; the interface may require leading zeros for a shorter printed number. The alternative biographical route uses name and other details offered on the current screen.

1. Select the A-number or biographical search mode. Enter the requested information exactly and choose the correct country of birth.
2. Review the result for the person's identity and reported detention location. Record the date and time of the search.
3. If a facility appears, use the official contact information supplied for that location. Do not assume the Andrews jail remains the custodian.
4. If no result appears, try supported spelling variations and then use the ICE assistance route. Treat silence as unresolved.

The interface principally supports current custody. It is not a durable public archive of everyone ever detained or released by ICE.

What ICE Results Mean

ICE states that the locator covers a person in ICE custody and certain people held by Customs and Border Protection for more than 48 hours. It does not locate children under 18. Processing time, spelling, data limits, a transfer, removal, conditional release, or movement to another custody system can all affect whether a name appears. None of those outcomes should be selected without a matching agency record.

A negative result is especially weak just after a transfer. County and federal systems update on their own schedules. Keep the sheriff event, court order, and ICE response separate until the chronology can be reconciled.

Call ICE Detention Assistance

When the locator does not resolve current status, ICE directs inquiries through detention-management and assistance channels. The research identifies the ICE Detention Reporting and Information Line at 888-351-4024, Monday through Friday, excluding holidays, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern. Hours can change, so check the ICE detention-management information before relying on a planned call.

Prepare the full name, A-number if lawfully available, country of birth, date of birth, and the date and agency of the Andrews County transfer. Ask what current status can be disclosed and which office holds any releasable historical document. Do not ask a local police desk to interpret federal immigration status it does not own.

Build the ICE Release Trail

There is no one-screen proof chain for an Andrews County-to-ICE event. The county release record establishes the jail's handoff. The immigration locator can show current detention. ICE or Enforcement and Removal Operations records may establish a later detention change. Court records address the criminal case, while immigration proceedings follow a distinct system.

1. Obtain the Andrews booking-out or release/transfer entry and identify the receiving agency.
2. Search ICE with the strongest available identifier and preserve the result or no-result date.
3. Contact the location or ICE information channel to reconcile a recent transfer or missing result.
4. Request the existing ICE record needed to support a historical custody end, subject to privacy and access rules.
5. Check another custodian only when a record names that destination. Do not infer it from absence.

Detainer

An agency request or notice that can affect release handling; it is not itself proof of present detention.

Transfer

A handoff from one custodian to another while custody continues.

A-number

An immigration-file identifier used in the ICE locator, commonly displayed as nine digits for searching.

Conditional release

Release from detention under immigration conditions; it is not the same as the immigration matter ending.

Where ICE Release Goes

Unlike a county jail with one public campus, the ICE detention network can move a person between locations. The research found no dedicated ICE facility inside Andrews County and therefore no local discharge door, pickup point, or release schedule to publish. Family travel should be based on a facility confirmation, not on the last county address or an old locator screen.

Community release from ICE may still carry reporting requirements or pending immigration proceedings. Removal from the United States is another possible custody outcome and should never be described as ordinary community release. Transfer to USMS, another agency, or a different ICE facility likewise continues custody. The official record must supply the event and destination.

The facility comparison on the Federal Bureau of Prisons release page explains why BOP and ICE locators are not interchangeable. BOP focuses on sentenced federal prisoners and retains many former-inmate results. ICE's public locator is aimed mainly at current immigration detention.

Older Andrews ICE Custody Records

The public ICE locator is designed mainly for current custody, so it is a weak archive for an Andrews transfer that happened months or years ago. A blank result may follow release, removal, a transfer, a data limit, or a record that is no longer shown. Historical verification therefore begins with the county booking-out entry and continues through an ICE records channel, not with a guess about why a name disappeared.

Ask the Andrews County Sheriff for the date and time of the handoff, the release or transfer code, the receiving authority, and any destination recorded at booking-out. Preserve an IVSS notice if one was received, but treat that county event alert as evidence that the local custody record changed. It may not explain where ICE took the person or what happened after federal receipt.

For the federal phase, identify the A-number when it is lawfully known and request the existing record needed to confirm custody dates or disposition. ICE privacy and access rules can limit details about another person. A court record for the local criminal charge does not substitute for immigration records, and an immigration-court development does not by itself establish the exact time physical detention ended.

Records can also show several moves. County jail to ICE, ICE facility to ICE facility, ICE to another custodian, conditional release, and removal are distinct events. Put them in date order. Use the agency wording for each step and avoid describing every departure from a building as a return to the Andrews community.

Confirm an Andrews ICE Release

For a recent event, call the Andrews County Jail at 432-523-5545 and ask whether the booking closed through release to the community or transfer to another agency. Staff may require a written request. Use the current county address at 790 SE 401, Andrews, Texas 79714 when the sheriff directs written or in-person contact, but confirm instructions before visiting.

The safe chronology reads: Andrews arrest and booking → county release order or local case event → county booking-out destination → ICE receipt or locator status → later ICE detention outcome. Each arrow needs a record. This prevents a common mistake in which disappearance from the county roster is reported as freedom even though a receiving agency still holds the person.

Note: ICE search information should be used for custody verification and lawful personal or court needs, with care for privacy and safety.