ICE Releases Serving Mason
ICE detention is federal civil custody. It is not the Mason County Jail, a TDCJ prison, or a BOP criminal sentence. No physical ICE detention center was identified in Mason County. No county ICE detention contract or 287(g) agreement was verified either. The page therefore describes the nationwide ICE route that may become relevant after a documented transfer.
If Mason County reports release to ICE, the local booking has ended but custody continues with the federal agency. Use the Mason movement or release transaction to identify the receiving authority. Then search ICE with the exact identity fields. Do not call a transfer a community release merely because the person no longer appears in local custody.
Search ICE Recent Releases
Use the ICE Online Detainee Locator System. The strongest search uses the exact nine-digit A-number and country of birth. If the A-number has fewer digits, add leading zeros to reach nine digits. The alternative uses name, date of birth, and country of birth.
- Obtain the A-number from the person, case, attorney, or receiving-agency record when available.
- Enter the exact nine-digit number and country of birth.
- If no A-number is available, use the exact name, birth date, and country.
- Compare the returned identity and location data before treating it as a match.
- If the person was recently released or transferred, preserve the search date and contact the named office for current status.
ODLS excludes people under 18. A missing result may reflect identity differences, the age rule, delay, or the limit on historical release coverage.
ICE Locator Fields and Limits
ICE says ODLS includes current detainees and people released from ICE custody within the preceding 60 days. It is not a permanent former-detainee archive. The useful inputs and outputs are narrow.
| Field or result | Meaning and limit |
|---|---|
| Nine-digit A-number | The strongest search identifier when paired with country of birth. |
| Name and birth date | Biographical alternative that requires careful spelling and matching. |
| Country of birth | Required for either ODLS search path. |
| Current ICE location | Shows the ICE detention location returned by the system. |
| Recent ICE record | May cover an ICE release within the prior 60 days. |
| No result | Does not prove release, immigration outcome, or absence of prior custody. |
After the 60-day period, a no-hit says little about the older event. Use case records, legal counsel, or ICE record channels for history that the live locator no longer displays.
Mason Transfer to ICE
The Mason County Jail holds local pretrial and short-sentence custody. Its booking can end through bond, time served, court order, sentence completion, or transfer. If immigration custody follows, request both the release type or reason and destination or receiving agency. Those two fields prevent the local exit from being mislabeled.
Call the Mason County Sheriff at 325-347-6937, or dispatch at 325-347-5252, with the full name, birth date, booking date, and booking or cause number. Ask whether the person is physically present. If not, ask for the actual departure time, coded release type, any hold, and receiving authority. Follow with the county public-information form if telephone disclosure is limited.
The Mason County release record route explains how the sheriff transaction and court file support that handoff.
ICE Release Versus Outcome
Release from ICE custody describes the end of that detention episode. It does not, by itself, explain the final immigration case outcome or whether another authority has custody. A person may move to another government system, enter the community subject to proceedings, or have a separate criminal matter. Read the locator within its stated scope.
- ICE detention
- Federal civil immigration custody.
- ICE release
- The end of the ICE detention episode shown by the source.
- Detainer
- A request or notice that can affect transfer between custodians.
- Community release
- An exit supported by records showing no receiving custodial agency in that event.
A county court disposition also does not decide the immigration proceeding. The Mason case and ICE matter belong to different authorities, even when the local event led to the transfer.
ICE Records and Contact Route
ODLS is the primary public location tool. When it returns a facility or office, use that official contact to ask what nonconfidential status can be confirmed. Keep the A-number and search date. Do not rely on a number from an unsolicited message when an official ICE directory can be checked.
ICE Detention Lookup
System: Online Detainee Locator System
Primary search: A-number and country of birth
Alternative: Name, date of birth, country of birth
Public scope: Current detainees and releases within the prior 60 days
For older or more detailed records, identify the exact document, person, A-number, and date range through the relevant federal records channel. A broad request may be hard to locate and may reach protected information. Ask for segregable public portions.
ICE and BOP Differ
The Federal Bureau of Prisons holds people in federal criminal custody. ICE detention is civil immigration custody. A BOP result may say Released or Not in BOP Custody while ICE holds the same person. Conversely, an ICE no-hit does not answer whether BOP, TDCJ, or a county jail holds the person.
Use identifiers suited to each system. BOP searches by register, DCDC, FBI, or INS number and also by name with filters. ICE uses A-number plus country of birth or a biographical search. The Mason record should supply the receiving-agency lead before either federal tool is used.
Keep the events in order: local booking, transfer, federal custody, and later release are separate records with separate dates.
ICE Notification Limits
Texas VINE supports county custody events, and TDCJ IVSS supports state-prison and parole notices. Neither is a replacement for ICE ODLS. A county VINE alert stating transfer may be the prompt to ask Mason where the person went, but the alert does not guarantee that a county registration continues into federal immigration custody.
Preserve the event wording and verify it with the sheriff movement entry. If ICE is named, use ODLS. If TDCJ is named, register separately with IVSS when appropriate. System-specific registration prevents a county notification from being stretched beyond the reporting agency's custody episode.
Older ICE Release Checks
The 60-day public window makes prompt verification important. For an older release, gather the A-number, full name, birth date, country of birth, Mason booking and cause numbers, reported transfer date, and any ICE facility or field office. These facts help identify a record after the public locator stops returning it.
A no-result response should be described precisely. It may mean the person is outside the public window, under 18, entered differently, was never in ICE custody, or cannot be found with the supplied data. It does not prove a specific immigration outcome.
Note: No Mason County ICE facility or detention agreement was verified, so every ICE claim must rest on a person-specific transfer or federal record.
Resolve Conflicting ICE Records
When Mason says transferred but ODLS gives no result, compare names, A-number formatting, country of birth, dates, and the receiving agency. The local record may name a federal intermediary or another jail rather than ICE itself. Ask for the movement entry instead of assuming where the person went.
When ODLS shows release but another system shows custody, both can be true at different scopes. Report that ICE custody ended on the documented event while the other source shows later or separate custody. Reserve the phrase released to the community for a record chain that supports it.
ICE Release Timeline Evidence
A reliable timeline preserves the Mason departure record, the ODLS search result, the A-number, the named ICE location, and any later release record. Each item proves a limited step. The county transaction proves Mason custody ended. ODLS can show ICE location or a recent ICE record. A later federal document may explain release from that detention episode.
Record the search time because the 60-day public window is brief. If the result changes, report both dated observations and seek the underlying record rather than choosing the version that seems more convenient.