ICE Form I-200: Administrative Arrest Warrant, Rights, and Bond

ICE Form I-200 is an administrative arrest warrant that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement uses to take a noncitizen into custody so removal proceedings can begin. It is signed by a Department of Homeland Security official rather than a judge, and that single fact drives most of what it can and cannot do: it authorizes an arrest in public, but on its own it does not give officers the right to walk into a private home.

What Is on the Form

The I-200 opens with a command to “any immigration officer authorized pursuant to sections 236 and 287 of the Immigration and Nationality Act” to arrest the named person.¹ It identifies the individual by full legal name, aliases, date of birth, country of birth, and Alien Registration Number, the unique seven-, eight-, or nine-digit A-Number that links to the person’s immigration file.²

The issuing official checks one or more boxes stating the basis for probable cause: a charging document has been issued, proceedings are pending, admissibility was not established after deferred inspection, DHS databases show the person lacks lawful status, or the person made voluntary statements to an immigration officer.¹ The official signs and dates the form, and the warrant is complete. No judge ever sees it.

The statutory authority for this kind of arrest is Section 236 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, at 8 U.S.C. § 1226.³ The regulation identifying which DHS officials can issue and serve these warrants is 8 CFR 287.5(e).⁴

How to Tell an I-200 From a Judicial Warrant

Look at the top of the document and at the signature. A judicial warrant carries a court header (United States District Court or a named state court) and is signed by a judge or magistrate judge who reviewed the government’s evidence independently. An I-200 carries a “Department of Homeland Security” header and is signed by an “Authorized Immigration Officer.” The form number is printed on the page itself.¹

The reason this matters: a judicial warrant satisfies the Fourth Amendment’s requirement that warrants be issued by a neutral magistrate, so it authorizes entry into a home. An administrative warrant does not go through that review, so it has traditionally not been treated as sufficient to enter a private residence.

Form I-200 Versus Form I-205

ICE uses two administrative warrants that are easy to mix up. The I-200 starts a case: it lets officers arrest someone so removal proceedings can begin. Form I-205, the Warrant of Removal/Deportation, is used only after an immigration judge, the Board of Immigration Appeals, or a federal court has already ordered the person removed. If an officer presents an I-205, the deportation decision has already been made.

Form I-200 Versus an ICE Detainer

Form I-247, an ICE detainer, is not a warrant. It is a request to a jail or prison to hold someone for up to 48 hours beyond their scheduled release so ICE can come pick them up.⁵ A detainer gives no arrest authority of its own. The I-200 is the document that actually authorizes an ICE officer to make an arrest.

Where Officers Can Execute the Warrant

An I-200 is valid throughout the United States. The limits come from the type of location.

In Public

Officers can execute an I-200 on any street, sidewalk, parking lot, park, courthouse, or other public space without further authorization.

At a Home

Most federal courts have held that an administrative warrant does not meet the Fourth Amendment standard for entering a home. Under that framework, ICE officers with only an I-200 or I-205 need voluntary consent from someone inside, or genuinely exigent circumstances such as a threat to life, to come in.

DHS has taken a more expansive position recently. A 2025 internal memo asserted that ICE can enter a residence on an administrative warrant when the person inside has a final order of removal, on the theory that such individuals have a diminished expectation of privacy and the government has a strong interest in carrying out the order.⁶ DHS pointed to an Eighth Circuit ruling applying a reasonableness standard to such entries. Whether courts elsewhere will accept that reasoning is unsettled, and challenges are pending.

Practically: if officers knock with an I-200, you are not required to open the door. If you open it, anything you say and any consent you give can be used later. You keep the right to remain silent, to refuse to sign documents, and to decline a search of your home no matter what happens at the doorway. Recording the encounter, when it feels safe to do so, can matter later if there is a dispute about consent or about which rooms officers entered.

At Work

The same public-versus-private line applies. ICE can walk into areas open to the public, like a retail floor or a restaurant dining room. Non-public areas — a warehouse, a kitchen, a back office — require either the employer’s consent or a judicial warrant. An I-200 alone does not let officers into those spaces, and employers are not required to confirm whether a named person works there or help locate them on the premises.

What Happens During the Arrest

Officers identify themselves as federal agents, present the warrant, tell the person they are being taken into custody for immigration violations, and transport them to an ICE processing facility. The I-200 does not authorize a search of the premises, belongings, or other people present. Any search needs a separate legal basis.

Your Rights After Arrest

Silence

You are not required to answer questions about your immigration status, country of origin, or how you entered the country. Anything you say becomes part of the record. You can also refuse to sign anything, especially voluntary departure paperwork, until you talk to a lawyer.

Counsel

Federal law guarantees the right to be represented in removal proceedings, but the government will not pay for a lawyer.⁷ There is no immigration public defender. The Executive Office for Immigration Review keeps a list of nonprofit organizations and attorneys who have committed to at least 50 hours per year of free legal work at each local immigration court.⁸ Demand far exceeds supply, so contacting providers early matters.

Consular Contact

Under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, a detained foreign national has the right to contact their home country’s consulate, and arresting authorities must inform the person of that right without delay.⁹ For nationals of certain countries with mandatory notification agreements, authorities must notify the consulate whether or not the person asks. A consulate can help locate an attorney, notify family, and monitor detention conditions.

Processing, Charging, and Bond

At the processing facility, officers create a Form I-213, the Record of Deportable/Inadmissible Alien, documenting how and where the person was found, biographical details, criminal history, and prior immigration encounters.¹⁰ The I-213 usually becomes central evidence in the removal case, so errors in it are worth flagging with counsel.

ICE also issues a Notice to Appear (Form I-862), the charging document that formally starts removal proceedings. The NTA lists the factual allegations and legal grounds for removal, and may include the first hearing date; if not, the court sends a hearing notice separately. Federal law requires at least 10 days between service of the NTA and the first hearing.¹¹

Bond Hearings

For people not subject to mandatory detention, an immigration judge can hold a bond hearing to decide whether to release them while their case proceeds. The request can be made in writing or orally.¹² The detained person carries the burden of showing they are neither a danger to the community nor a flight risk. Judges weigh length of time in the country, family ties, employment, criminal record, history of appearing for court, manner of entry, and eligibility for immigration relief.

If bond is granted, the statutory minimum is $1,500, though actual amounts are often much higher and vary by judge and jurisdiction.³ Private representation from arrest through final hearing can run from several thousand to tens of thousands of dollars, so families often need to plan for both bond and legal costs.

When Bond Is Not Available

Under 8 U.S.C. § 1226(c), certain people are subject to mandatory detention with no possibility of bond. That includes noncitizens removable because of:

Certain crimes of moral turpitude or controlled substance offenses making them inadmissible
Aggravated felonies, firearms offenses, and certain drug crimes making them deportable
Convictions with sentences of at least one year
Terrorism-related grounds of inadmissibility or deportability
Certain status violations combined with arrests or convictions for offenses like burglary, theft, or assault on a law enforcement officer

The only exception is narrow: the Attorney General can release someone in these categories if release is necessary to protect a witness in a major investigation and the person shows they will not endanger others or miss court.³

Finding Someone After an ICE Arrest

Families often do not know where the person has been taken. ICE runs an Online Detainee Locator System that accepts two kinds of searches:¹³

By A-Number, entered as nine digits (pad shorter numbers with leading zeros) along with country of birth.
By name, requiring an exact first and last name match (including hyphens), country of birth, and date of birth.

The system lists only people currently in ICE custody or who have been in CBP custody for more than 48 hours, and it does not show anyone under 18. Records may take a day or two to appear after a recent arrest. You can also call the ICE detention reporting hotline or contact the local field office. Speed matters, because locating someone quickly is what lets an attorney get involved and a bond hearing get requested before too much of the case has moved without representation.

1
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Form I-200 – Warrant for Arrest of Alien
2
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. A-Number/Alien Registration Number/Alien Number
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1226 – Apprehension and Detention of Aliens
4
eCFR. 8 CFR 287.5 – Exercise of Power by Immigration Officers
5
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Immigration Detainers
6
U.S. Department of Homeland Security. DHS Sets the Record Straight on Administrative Warrants and American Public Support
7
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1229a – Removal Proceedings
8
U.S. Department of Justice. List of Pro Bono Legal Service Providers
9
U.S. Department of State. Consular Notification and Access
10
Department of Justice. Descriptions of Forms and Supporting Documents
11
U.S. Department of Justice. The Notice to Appear
12
Executive Office for Immigration Review. EOIR Policy Manual – 8.3 – Bond Proceedings
13
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Online Detainee Locator System