Immigration Transfer Releases
ICE custody is separate from county jail, Colorado state prison, and federal criminal sentence custody. A San Juan County Jail release entry can show that local custody ended because an immigration detainer, hold, or transport applied. That release entry should not be read automatically as return to the community. It may mean the person left the county jail and entered, or was expected to enter, immigration custody.
ICE's Online Detainee Locator System is the first public check for current ICE custody and, according to public guidance, certain recent ICE or CBP custody contexts. The locator is not a complete historical release archive for every person who ever had an immigration issue. For released immigration custody, the local jail record, immigration court case status, attorney or representative contact, and ICE records route may be needed.
The San Juan County part of the timeline remains local. The sheriff's booking and release record can show release date, release time, release reason, detainer or hold notation where releasable, and destination or receiving agency if transport occurred. The San Juan Combined Courts can explain the criminal case disposition, bond, sentence, dismissal, warrant, or probation order. ICE handles the immigration custody locator, and immigration court tools handle removal-proceeding status.
How to Use ICE ODLS
Use ICE's locator only when the custody path points to immigration detention. A San Juan County Jail booking by itself is not enough. Look for terms such as ICE hold, immigration detainer, federal immigration transfer, CBP, immigration custody, or agency transport. If those appear, use the ICE Online Detainee Locator at https://locator.ice.gov/ and compare the result carefully against the identifying details available from the local record.
- Start with the San Juan County Jail release entry to confirm that the person left county custody under an immigration-related hold or transfer.
- Search ICE ODLS by A-number and country of birth when the A-number is known.
- If A-number is not known, use the biographical search route provided by the locator, such as name, country of birth, and date of birth where required by the interface.
- If ODLS shows current custody, use the facility and contact information provided by ICE rather than the San Juan County Jail.
- If ODLS does not show a result, check whether the person may have been released, recently transferred, held under a different name, outside the locator's time window, or in a non-ICE custody path.
- Use immigration court case status online or by phone at 1-800-898-7180 when case-proceeding status is the question.
For a named-person local search, the San Juan County released inmates page provides the full custody-type workflow. ICE is one branch of that workflow, not a substitute for sheriff, court, CDOC, or BOP records.
ICE Locator and Records
The facility map identifies ICE's Online Detainee Locator as the correct public lookup for immigration custody. It also identifies USA.gov's detained-by-ICE information and immigration court case-status routes as supporting paths. ICE ODLS is designed to locate detained individuals in ICE custody or certain recent custody contexts. It does not supply a San Juan County booking photo, a county bond record, a Colorado probation order, or a CDOC sentence-discharge date.
When an immigration transfer is suspected, keep the county and immigration records separate. The county jail release record answers when the San Juan County custody event ended and why. ICE ODLS answers whether the person is currently or recently locatable in ICE custody. Immigration court status answers where the removal or immigration case stands. A criminal court docket answers the local criminal disposition, if any.
ICE / immigration detention system
Federal immigration custody locator
Locator: https://locator.ice.gov/
No San Juan County ICE facility or contract identified
Use for current or recent ICE custody after an immigration transfer
No Local ICE Facility Identified
The research found no San Juan County ICE detention facility or county ICE contract. That is an important access-channel finding, but it does not mean immigration holds cannot appear in a local custody record. Small counties may still encounter federal or immigration holds, and a local jail can release a person to another agency without operating that agency's detention facility.
Readers often confuse three separate systems. CDOC is Colorado state-prison custody. BOP is federal criminal sentence custody. ICE is immigration detention. A person moved from San Juan County Jail to ICE should not be searched in CDOC unless there is also a Colorado prison sentence, and should not be searched in BOP unless there is federal criminal sentence custody. The release or transfer reason should drive the locator choice.
When ICE Search Is Limited
ICE ODLS is not a complete historical release database. If a released person no longer appears, the result may have aged out or the person may no longer be in ICE custody. If the person is in CBP custody less than the public guidance window, recently released, under a name variation, or outside the search criteria used, the locator may not give a result. A missing result should be treated as a prompt to verify through the local release record, immigration court status, and appropriate ICE or legal-representative channels.
For San Juan County release verification, the most defensible wording is precise: "released from San Juan County Jail to ICE" or "released from county custody under an immigration hold" when the record supports it. Avoid shortening that to "released" without context. The difference matters because one phrase describes the end of county custody, while the other may imply the person returned to the community.