Checklist · Immigration
Locating a Detained Person and Seeking Release on Bond: A Practical Checklist
8 U.S.C. § 1182
- Type
- Checklist
- Jurisdiction
- National
- Date
- 2025-07-26
- Topic
- Immigration
This checklist runs from the first hours after someone is detained through release and the weeks that follow. The opening sections cover locating the person, obtaining the A-number, and getting the two documents that determine everything downstream: the Notice to Appear and the custody determination. The next sections cover the classification question, including the certified criminal records needed to contest an assertion of mandatory detention. Middle sections cover assembling the bond packet, preparing the sponsor, and the hearing itself. Later sections cover post-order detention and the six-month framework, expedited removal and fear screening, and habeas corpus. A separate section covers the household tasks that prevent secondary damage while someone is detained, and a final section covers what to do after release, where avoidable losses are most common. Every item is written to be acted on directly by counsel or by a family member.
Locating a Detained Person and Seeking Release on Bond: A Practical Checklist
Immigration > Detention, Bond, and Custody | Published 26 July 2025 - Updated 7 July 2026 | UpLaw - uplaw.us
Before you start
⭐ Three facts organize everything in this checklist. There is no appointed lawyer. The person may be moved without notice. And whether release is even possible depends on a classification question that the government's paperwork does not settle.
Background: immigration detention, bond, and custody and held without a sentence. Forms and packets: the immigration detention and bond hearing toolkit.
Section 1 — First 24 hours: find the person
☐ Find the A-number. It appears on any prior immigration document — work permit, green card, prior notice, receipt notice. ⭐ This is the single most useful piece of information available. ☐ Search the online detainee locator by A-number, or by name and country of birth. ☐ ⚠ Expect a 24 to 72 hour delay before the person appears. ☐ Check the county jail where the arrest occurred; many hold people under contract pending transfer. ☐ Call the local field office, and expect long waits. ☐ Ask whether a detainer was lodged if the person was already in criminal custody. ☐ ⚠ Check the locator every day. Transfers happen without notice to anyone. ☐ Record every facility and every date — this chronology matters later for habeas and for prolonged detention arguments.
Section 2 — Get the two documents
☐ The Notice to Appear. It states the factual allegations and the charges of removability — inadmissibility under 8 U.S.C. § 1182 or deportability under 8 U.S.C. § 1227 — and begins proceedings under 8 U.S.C. § 1229a. ☐ The custody determination, stating whether bond was set, denied, or asserted to be unavailable. ☐ Read the allegations carefully. ⚠ Errors are common — wrong entry date, wrong status history, mischaracterized convictions — and some are dispositive. ☐ Identify which statute authorizes the detention: ☐ 8 U.S.C. § 1225 — applicant for admission; expedited removal may apply; ⚠ parole rather than bond ☐ 8 U.S.C. § 1226(a) — ⭐ bond is available ☐ 8 U.S.C. § 1226(c) — mandatory detention asserted; see Section 3 ☐ 8 U.S.C. § 1231 — final order exists; see Section 8
Section 3 — Test the classification
⭐ Never concede mandatory detention on the agency's say-so. It is contestable at a bond eligibility hearing, and it is defeated more often than families expect.
☐ Obtain certified criminal dispositions for every prior case — charging document, plea, and judgment. ⚠ Not a memory, not a rap sheet, not the government's characterization. ☐ Identify the exact statute and subsection of conviction. ☐ Confirm there is a conviction for immigration purposes. Deferred adjudication, diversion, and juvenile dispositions are treated differently. ☐ Check whether any conviction was vacated, and why. ⚠ Vacated for a legal defect generally does not count; vacated for rehabilitative or immigration reasons generally does. ☐ Compare elements to the federal ground — the categorical approach. ⭐ If the state statute is broader than the generic federal definition, it does not match, even if the actual conduct would have. ☐ Check divisibility, and if the statute is divisible, what the record of conviction establishes. ☐ Check sentence thresholds. ⚠ A one-year sentence imposed, including suspended time, converts many offenses into aggravated felonies. ☐ Check timing relative to admission for crimes involving moral turpitude, and any petty-offense exception. ☐ Consider post-conviction relief where the conviction is legally defective — see sentencing and corrections and the sentence after the sentence. ☐ Note that delayed pickup is no longer an argument — Nielsen v. Preap, 586 U.S. 392.
Section 4 — Get counsel
☐ ⚠ There is no appointed lawyer. Representation is the strongest single predictor of both release and relief. ☐ Contact detention-focused legal service organizations in the region of the facility. ☐ Ask about accredited representatives at recognized nonprofit organizations, who may practice before the immigration courts. ☐ ⚠ Do not pay a notario or consultant for legal advice. In many countries the word denotes a legal professional; in the United States it does not. ☐ Ask any prospective representative for three things: a written fee agreement, proof of bar admission or accreditation, and confirmation they will enter an appearance. ☐ Have counsel enter an appearance promptly — many facilities restrict legal calls to counsel of record. ☐ ⚠ Instruct the detained person in writing to sign nothing, especially a stipulated removal order, which ends the case.
Section 5 — Request the hearing
☐ Request a custody redetermination in writing, and ask for it orally at the first master calendar hearing if not already scheduled. Regulations at 8 C.F.R. part 1236 and 8 C.F.R. part 1003. ☐ Where mandatory detention is asserted, request a bond eligibility hearing expressly. ☐ Confirm the hearing date and the filing deadline for the packet — detained dockets move quickly. ☐ Confirm the interpreter and dialect. ☐ Where the person is under 8 U.S.C. § 1225, request parole instead, with a sponsor, an address, medical evidence, and a reporting proposal.
Section 6 — Build the bond packet
⭐ Bond hearings last twenty minutes and are decided on documents. Assemble over the two weeks before, then file in advance, tabbed and indexed, with a one-page cover summary.
Identity and status ☐ Identity documents and the A-number ☐ Passport, prior immigration documents, entry records
Family ties ☐ Birth certificates for United States citizen or resident children ☐ Marriage certificate; spouse's proof of status ☐ Photographs and evidence of the relationship over time ☐ Medical documentation for anyone dependent on the person's care
Residence ☐ Lease or deed; utility bills covering the residence period ☐ Letter from the householder confirming the person may live there ☐ ⭐ Evidence of total years in the United States, year by year
Work and finances ☐ Employment letter — ⭐ ask the employer to confirm the position remains open ☐ Pay records; tax returns for as many years as available ☐ Evidence of a business, if any
Character ☐ Letters of support from employer, clergy, teachers, neighbors — ⚠ specific and personal beats generic ☐ Evidence of volunteer work, church membership, school involvement
Criminal history and rehabilitation ☐ Certified dispositions for every case ☐ Completion certificates for treatment, classes, or programs ☐ Sobriety or counseling documentation where relevant ☐ ⚠ Address the worst fact directly. A packet omitting a conviction the judge already knows about loses credibility for everything else.
Relief ☐ ⭐ A statement of the relief to be sought, with supporting documents — a plausible claim is direct evidence against flight risk ☐ Any pending petition or application, with receipt notices
Supervision proposal ☐ Named sponsor, with identification and proof of citizenship or residence ☐ Fixed address and telephone ☐ A proposed reporting schedule ☐ A written commitment to transport the person to every hearing
Section 7 — The hearing and after
☐ Prepare the client for questions about criminal history and about who will bring them to court. ☐ Have the sponsor present if possible. ☐ Organize the argument around the two questions: not a danger, not a flight risk. ☐ Propose the specific supervision arrangement rather than asking for release in the abstract. ☐ ⚠ Set expectations. A reduction rather than release is a common and often good outcome. ☐ Preserve the record for a Board of Immigration Appeals appeal — offers of proof, exclusions, and written findings where available. ☐ Post bond through a citizen or lawful permanent resident, on the government's form, at a designated office. ☐ ⚠ Keep the bond paperwork and keep the obligor's address current with the agency. Refunds are routinely lost this way. ☐ Renew the request on changed circumstances — a new relief application, a vacated conviction, a new sponsor, new evidence.
Section 8 — If there is already a removal order
☐ Identify the date the order became final and calendar the 90-day removal period under 8 U.S.C. § 1231; regulations at 8 C.F.R. part 241 and 8 C.F.R. part 1241. ☐ Calendar the six-month point. ⭐ Zadvydas v. Davis, 533 U.S. 678, makes six months presumptively reasonable; beyond it, evidence that removal is not significantly likely in the reasonably foreseeable future shifts the burden to the government. ☐ Note that the same construction applies to inadmissible people — Clark v. Martinez, 543 U.S. 371. ☐ Request post-order custody review and submit evidence: consular correspondence, denials of travel documents, country conditions, statelessness documentation. ☐ ⚠ Confirm the person has cooperated fully with removal efforts — signed forms, attended interviews, provided documents. Non-cooperation suspends the period and defeats the argument entirely. ☐ File habeas in the district of confinement if review does not produce release. ☐ Expect release on an order of supervision, not unconditional release. ☐ Consider a motion to reopen the underlying case if grounds exist, which may also affect custody.
Section 9 — If expedited removal is in play
☐ ⭐ Determine whether fear of return was expressed. This is the entire gateway out of the expedited track under 8 U.S.C. § 1225. ☐ Request a credible fear interview if it has not occurred. ☐ Where fear was not expressed initially, request an interview and explain the omission — trauma, interpreter failure, fear of officials, or no meaningful opportunity. ☐ Prepare for the interview: the specific threats, who made them, when, and why the government cannot or will not protect the person. ☐ Request a re-interview where a medical condition, an interpreter problem, or trauma affected the first one. ☐ On a negative finding, request immigration judge review promptly. ☐ ⚠ Understand the limits. Department of Homeland Security v. Thuraissigiam, 591 U.S. 103, sharply restricts habeas review in this posture, and 8 U.S.C. § 1252 channels review of removal orders generally. ☐ On a positive finding, the case proceeds under 8 U.S.C. § 1229a with an asylum application under 8 U.S.C. § 1158 — see asylum and humanitarian relief and preparing and filing an asylum or humanitarian application.
Section 10 — Prolonged detention and habeas
☐ Build the detention chronology: every hearing date, every continuance, and who requested it. ☐ ⚠ Note that there are no automatic hearings after six months — Jennings v. Rodriguez, 583 U.S. 281, rejected that statutory reading. ☐ Frame the claim as an as-applied due process challenge, weighing length of detention, anticipated duration, cause of delay, and the substantiality of the relief claim. ☐ File in the district of confinement, against the immediate custodian. ⚠ Transfers change jurisdiction. ☐ Move for expedited consideration. ☐ ⭐ Ask for a bond hearing as the remedy, not outright release — courts grant that far more readily. ☐ Note what habeas cannot reach: discretionary denials of relief, and expedited removal determinations under Thuraissigiam, 591 U.S. 103.
Section 11 — The household, in the first week
⭐ One afternoon on this list prevents most of the secondary damage — and produces much of the documentation the bond packet needs.
☐ Children. Put a standby guardianship or power of attorney in place naming a caregiver, with school enrollment and medical consent authorizations. ⚠ Without it, a caregiver may be unable to authorize routine medical care. See powers of attorney and advance directives. ☐ If a child welfare agency becomes involved, act immediately — see child welfare and dependency proceedings. ☐ Employment. Ask the employer, in writing, to confirm the position remains open. ⚠ A job held for years is often gone within two weeks. ☐ Housing. Designate one person to handle rent, mail, and the lease, with written authority. ☐ Bank accounts. Add an authorized signer where possible; a sole-signatory account is effectively frozen from inside a facility. ☐ Vehicle. ⚠ An impounded car accrues fees daily and is sold at auction quickly. Retrieve or release it. ☐ Other cases. Notify every court and every opposing counsel in writing of the detention. ⚠ A default judgment entered while someone is detained is fully enforceable. ☐ Health. Send the facility a written record of diagnoses and medications, keep a copy, and document every request that goes unanswered. ☐ Money. Set up a commissary and telephone account so the person can call counsel.
Section 12 — Conditions problems
☐ Use the facility grievance process, and complete every level. ⚠ The Prison Litigation Reform Act's exhaustion requirement applies in most facilities and defeats many otherwise meritorious claims. ☐ Keep copies of every grievance and response, with dates and staff names. ☐ Document contemporaneously: medical requests submitted and ignored, solitary placements, denied legal calls, missed medication. ☐ Escalate to the agency's detention oversight and civil rights offices. ☐ Raise disability accommodation where relevant — 29 U.S.C. § 794; see disability access and public accommodations. ☐ Raise religious exercise where relevant — 42 U.S.C. § 2000cc-1; see religious liberty and accommodation. ☐ Object to transfers that separate the person from counsel, and document the effect on the representation.
Section 13 — After release
⚠ More cases are lost in the month after release than in the month before it.
☐ Confirm every condition in writing — reporting dates, address requirements, travel limits, monitoring obligations. ☐ ⚠ Update the address with the immigration court AND with the agency, separately, and keep proof. An address filed with one and not the other is the leading cause of an in-absentia removal order. ☐ Calendar the next hearing and verify it independently through the court's information system rather than relying on the paper notice. ☐ ⭐ Explain what an in-absentia order means: failure to appear generally results in removal, and reopening requires exceptional circumstances or lack of notice — a heavy burden. ☐ Move to change venue to the court near the residence. ☐ Confirm the case has moved to a non-detained docket. ☐ File the relief application by the court's deadline. ⚠ Applications not filed on time are frequently deemed abandoned. ☐ Apply for work authorization where eligibility exists, and calendar the renewal. ☐ Never miss a check-in. ⚠ A missed report can result in re-detention and a revoked bond. ☐ Request modification of monitoring conditions that conflict with work, childcare, or medical care. ☐ Keep building the case — see removal defense, preparing for a removal hearing and pursuing relief, and the notice to appear.
Section 14 — Deadline and document tracker
| Item | Date | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Date and place of arrest | ||
| A-number found | ⭐ | |
| First located in the system | ||
| Facilities and transfer dates | ⚠ ongoing | |
| Notice to Appear obtained | ||
| Custody determination obtained | ||
| Authorizing provision identified | ⭐ | |
| Certified criminal dispositions obtained | ⭐ | |
| Categorical analysis completed | ||
| Counsel retained; appearance entered | ⚠ | |
| Custody redetermination requested | ||
| Bond packet filing deadline | ⚠ | |
| Bond hearing date | ||
| Bond amount / decision | ||
| Bond posted; obligor address on file | ⚠ | |
| Board appeal deadline | ⚠ | |
| Removal period start (if order final) | ||
| Six-month Zadvydas point | ⭐ | |
| Post-order custody review requested | ||
| Relief application deadline | ⚠ | |
| Next hearing date, independently verified | ⚠ | |
| Address updated: court and agency | ⚠ |
Section 15 — Ten mistakes that cost cases
- ⚠ Conceding mandatory detention because the form says so, without pulling the certified disposition.
- Waiting to look for counsel. Detained dockets move in weeks, not months.
- ⚠ Paying a notario. Not a lawyer, and often actively harmful.
- ⚠ Signing a stipulated removal order. It ends the case.
- Arriving at the bond hearing with argument instead of documents.
- Omitting the bad conviction from the packet, which costs credibility on everything else.
- ⚠ Failing to cooperate with removal efforts while claiming the Zadvydas period has run.
- Not expressing fear in the expedited posture, where it is the only gateway out.
- ⚠ Updating the address with only one of the two agencies after release.
- ⚠ Missing a hearing or a check-in, which produces an in-absentia order or a revoked bond.
The short version
Hours 1–24: find the A-number, search the locator, check the local jail, and check again tomorrow.
Days 1–3: get the Notice to Appear and the custody determination, identify the authorizing statute, order certified criminal dispositions, and retain counsel or an accredited representative.
Week 1: request the hearing, put children's custody documents in place, secure the job letter and the housing, and tell every other court about the detention.
Weeks 1–2: build the packet — ties, relief, sponsor, supervision proposal — and file it in advance.
After release: update both addresses, verify every hearing date independently, file the relief application on time, and never miss a check-in.
⭐ The whole checklist reduces to five words: find them, classify correctly, document.
Section 16 — Vocabulary you will need this week
⭐ The words are a barrier in themselves. These come up in the first days.
☐ A-number — the eight or nine digit registration number identifying the immigration file. ⭐ Find it first. ☐ Notice to Appear — the charging document that begins removal proceedings. ☐ Detainer — a request that a jail hold someone briefly for federal pickup. ☐ Custody redetermination — the bond hearing before an immigration judge; a fresh look, not an appeal. ☐ Bond eligibility hearing — a hearing on whether mandatory detention actually applies. ⭐ Ask for it by name. ☐ Mandatory detention — no bond available, under 8 U.S.C. § 1226(c). ☐ Detained docket — the fast calendar for people in custody. ☐ Board of Immigration Appeals — reviews immigration judge decisions, including bond. ☐ Expedited removal — removal by officer order without a hearing, under 8 U.S.C. § 1225. ☐ Credible fear interview — the screening that follows an expressed fear of return. ☐ Removal period — the 90 days after a final order, under 8 U.S.C. § 1231. ☐ Post-order custody review — administrative review of detention after that period. ☐ Order of supervision — release with reporting conditions. ☐ ⚠ Stipulated removal — an agreement to be removed without a hearing. Signing one ends the case. ☐ Voluntary departure — leaving at one's own expense within a set period; significant trade-offs, never decide without advice. ☐ Categorical approach — comparing elements of a criminal statute to a federal ground. ⭐ Broader state statute means no match. ☐ Accredited representative — a non-attorney authorized to appear before immigration courts through a recognized organization. ⚠ Not the same as a notario. ☐ In absentia order — removal entered when someone misses a hearing. ⚠ Very hard to undo.
Section 17 — Where to go next
| If your problem is | Start here |
|---|---|
| The full detention framework | immigration detention, bond, and custody |
| Understanding it quickly | held without a sentence |
| Forms, letters, and packets | the immigration detention and bond hearing toolkit |
| The removal case itself | removal defense |
| Preparing for the hearing | preparing for a removal hearing and pursuing relief |
| Removal defense forms | the removal defense toolkit |
| What immigration court is like | the notice to appear |
| Fear-based relief | asylum and humanitarian relief |
| Filing an asylum application | preparing and filing an asylum or humanitarian application |
| Family petitions | family-based immigration |
| Criminal consequences | the sentence after the sentence |
| Arrest at a protest | planning a protest and responding to police action |