ICE FOIA Request: How to File, Fees, and Redactions

You file an ICE FOIA request through the SecureRelease online portal at securerelease.us, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement must issue a determination within 20 business days of receiving it. As of January 22, 2026, DHS components, including ICE, no longer accept mailed or emailed FOIA requests, so the portal is the only route in.¹ The rest of what follows is what to ask for, how to prove who you are, what it costs, and what to do if ICE withholds records or misses the deadline.

What ICE Actually Holds

Not every immigration record lives at ICE. The full immigration history file, called the A-File, is maintained and released by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and ICE’s own FOIA page directs A-File requesters there. Send your request to ICE when you want records ICE itself created or holds: detention facility logs, medical records generated during ICE custody, records tied to a specific enforcement action, internal policy manuals, staff guidance, procurement contracts with private detention operators, or budget and financial records. Any record ICE maintains is potentially available unless a specific FOIA exemption applies.

What to Gather Before You File

The more identifying detail you include, the faster staff can pull the right files. At minimum, provide the subject’s full legal name, date of birth, and country of birth, plus any aliases used in prior immigration proceedings. The single most useful identifier is the Alien Registration Number (A-Number), the eight- or nine-digit number assigned to people in removal proceedings or with approved immigration benefits. Without it, searchers work across multiple databases using approximate matches, which drags out the timeline.

Because immigration records contain sensitive personal information protected by the Privacy Act, ICE verifies identity before releasing anything. You have three options: complete ICE’s Certification of Identity form from the ICE FOIA webpage, use DHS Form G-639 (a combined FOIA and Privacy Act form), or submit a written declaration signed under penalty of perjury, which federal law accepts in place of notarization.² Whichever you pick, include your full name, current address, date of birth, and place of birth.

Requesting Someone Else’s Records

If you are requesting on behalf of another adult, you need that person’s signed written consent authorizing release to you, plus proof of your own identity. Attorneys typically submit a signed client authorization alongside the FOIA request.

Requesting a Child’s Records

A parent must provide proof of parentage, such as a birth certificate or adoption decree. A legal guardian needs a court order or equivalent document establishing guardianship. The parent or guardian verifies their own identity, not the child’s, and signs the request in their own name.

How to Submit the Request

Create an account at securerelease.us, which is linked from ICE’s FOIA page. Upload your identity documents and any supporting materials, describe the records you want, and submit. The portal returns an immediate electronic confirmation with a tracking number you can use to check status at any point.

A second option is the government-wide portal at foia.gov, which routes requests to the correct agency.³ Requests mailed to ICE’s old FOIA address will not be processed under the current rule.

Specificity is what separates a request answered in weeks from one that stalls for months. “All ICE records about John Smith” is a search across everything ICE has ever touched. “Detention records for John Smith, A-Number 012-345-678, detained at [facility] between March and June 2024” is a search staff can actually run. Include dates, facilities, case numbers, and any file designations you know.

How Long ICE Takes

Once your request arrives, ICE assigns a tracking number and sorts it into a processing track. DHS regulations let components build tracks around complexity, considering factors like page volume and whether other offices or agencies need to be consulted.⁴ A narrow request for a handful of documents moves faster than a request for years of detention records across multiple facilities.

The statutory deadline is 20 business days for a determination on whether ICE will comply with your request, not just an acknowledgment that it arrived.⁵ In practice, complex requests routinely blow past this window, and ICE’s FOIA page acknowledges a heavy backlog. You can check status any time by entering your tracking number in SecureRelease.

What It Costs

FOIA is not automatically free. Agencies can charge for search time, review of records for exempt material, and duplication. What you pay depends on your requester category:

Commercial requesters pay for search time, review time, and duplication.
News media, educational institutions, and noncommercial scientific institutions pay only for duplication, with the first 100 pages free.
Everyone else pays for search time (first two hours free) and duplication (first 100 pages free).

Most individuals requesting their own immigration records fall into the last category, and fees for those requests are typically minimal or waived. By submitting a request, you implicitly agree to pay up to $25; if costs will run higher, ICE contacts you first.

You can request a full fee waiver by showing that disclosure will meaningfully contribute to public understanding of government operations and is not primarily for commercial purposes.⁵ Journalists and researchers regularly qualify. Someone requesting their own file for personal use generally does not.

Asking for Expedited Processing

If waiting will cause real harm, you can ask ICE to move your request ahead of the queue. The statute allows expedited processing when a delay could reasonably be expected to threaten someone’s life or physical safety, or when a person primarily engaged in disseminating information needs the records urgently to inform the public about actual or alleged government activity.⁵

DHS regulations add two more grounds: the potential loss of substantial due process rights, and matters of widespread and exceptional media interest raising questions about government integrity.⁴ The due process ground matters in immigration cases where someone facing a removal hearing needs records on a tight schedule that standard processing cannot meet.

Include a certified statement explaining why your situation qualifies. ICE has 10 calendar days to decide on expedited processing, and you can challenge a denial in court.

Why Records Come Back Redacted

FOIA presumes disclosure, but nine statutory exemptions let agencies withhold specific information. Two show up in almost every ICE response.

Exemption 6 covers personnel, medical, and similar files where disclosure would be an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.⁵ ICE uses it to redact phone numbers, home addresses, and identifying details of third parties who appear in your records. Your own information stays visible when you request your own file.

Exemption 7 protects records compiled for law enforcement purposes when release would cause specific harm. ICE most often invokes:

7(A), where release could interfere with pending enforcement proceedings. This one expires when the proceedings conclude.
7(C), which protects the privacy of officers, agents, informants, and others named in enforcement files, at a lower threshold than Exemption 6.
7(E), which shields surveillance methods, investigation protocols, and prosecution guidelines whose disclosure could help people evade the law.

Each redaction must be marked with the specific exemption behind it. A full denial must come with a written explanation naming the exemptions applied. Read those markings closely; they are the foundation of any appeal.

If ICE Denies or Redacts

You have 90 working days from the date of ICE’s response to file a written administrative appeal with the DHS Appeals Officer.⁶ Identify the request number and explain why the determination was wrong. For the current appeal address, check the DHS FOIA website or call 1-866-431-0486.

Appeals are not limited to challenging redactions. You can also appeal an inadequate search, a misreading of your request, or an improperly calculated fee. “You only searched one facility when I asked about detention medical records” is a legitimate appeal.

The DHS Office of the General Counsel or its designated Appeals Officer issues a written decision. A denial will notify you of your right to sue in federal court and will also mention free mediation through the Office of Government Information Services at the National Archives, which acts as a neutral go-between and which DHS is required to engage with in good faith.⁷ Mediation is voluntary and does not close the door to court.

Going to Federal Court

If the appeal fails, or if ICE never responds at all, you can file suit in federal district court. You have four venue choices: where you live, where you work, where the records are located, or the District of Columbia.⁵ The court reviews withholdings from scratch, and ICE bears the burden of justifying every redaction and every denial.

You normally must exhaust administrative remedies first, meaning you filed an appeal and received a decision. One exception matters here: if the agency misses the 20-business-day deadline on the initial request or on your appeal, exhaustion is deemed satisfied by operation of law and you can go directly to court. Given ICE’s acknowledged backlog, this route comes up more often than the statute alone would suggest.

1
Department of Homeland Security. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 U.S. Code 1746 – Unsworn Declarations Under Penalty of Perjury
3
Department of Homeland Security. FOIA Contact Information
4
eCFR. 6 CFR Part 5 Subpart A – Procedures for Disclosure of Records Under the Freedom of Information Act
5
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 5 U.S. Code 552 – Public Information; Agency Rules, Opinions, Orders, Records, and Proceedings
6
eCFR. 6 CFR 5.8 – Administrative Appeals
7
National Archives. The Office of Government Information Services (OGIS)