Defeating Ice Hold Requests

The Guide to Defeating ICE Hold Requests is a manual for communities to understand how immigration enforcement works, and to engage with local law enforcement and policy-makers to pass laws and policies against hold requests. When someone is booked into a local jail, on any charges, ICE issues a hold request to that jail, asking to keep the person locked up for an extra 48 hours so that ICE can come get them and deport them. These hold requests are the functional tool that underlies Secure Communities, 287(g), and the Criminal Alien Program. If communities refuse to submit to ICE hold requests, then immigrants who are released from jail are able to go back home to their families, instead of being snatched away to immigration detention and deportation. The Guide provides information and advice for organizers and communities to understand the links between local law enforcement and ICE and to change those relationships.