New ICE Transparency Bill Mandates Daily Public Tracking of Detainees and Locks In Oversight Offices

The Stop Unlawful Detention and End Mistreatment Act of 2025 is straightforward: it forces U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to pull back the curtain on its detention operations. The main event here is the creation of a massive, public, online database managed by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that must be updated daily.

The Daily Detention Tracker

This isn't just a list of names; it’s a detailed operational report. For every person in ICE custody, the database must track their legal reason for detention, how long they’ve been held, and how many times they’ve been moved between facilities. Think of it as a mandatory, public ledger for every day someone spends in a detention center. Crucially, the bill ensures privacy by explicitly forbidding the inclusion of any personally identifiable information (PII)—no names, addresses, or birth dates—meaning the public gets the data without compromising individual security. This level of granular, daily tracking (SEC. 2) means advocates and the public can spot patterns of prolonged detention or excessive transfers quickly, rather than waiting years for aggregated reports.

Shining a Light on 'Non-Traditional' Sites

One of the most interesting parts of this bill addresses the use of unconventional holding spots. If ICE uses a military base, land on an Indian reservation, or any location outside the continental U.S. to hold people, they have to publicly report it. This report isn't just a simple location pin; it must detail the site type, the justification for using it, the operational costs, and the standards of care applied there (SEC. 2). For regular folks, this means that if your local military facility or remote site is being used for detention, the government can't just keep it quiet. It forces a level of transparency on ad-hoc detention arrangements that has often been missing.

Accountability by the Numbers

The database also acts as an accountability report card for ICE itself. It requires the agency to track and publish details on any disciplinary actions taken against detainees, including the use of force. Even more critically, it mandates that ICE list all open recommendations from internal watchdogs like the Immigration Detention Ombudsman or the DHS Inspector General (SEC. 2). For each recommendation, ICE must post its plan and timeline for fixing the issue—or publicly explain why it chose not to. This is a big deal for oversight: it turns internal audit findings into public action items, making it much harder for the agency to let critical recommendations gather dust.

Protecting the Watchdogs

Finally, the bill throws a lifeline to two key internal oversight offices within DHS: the Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman and the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. Section 3 explicitly states that the Secretary of Homeland Security cannot shut down or cut back the operations of these offices. This provision is designed to lock in the operational continuity of these internal watchdogs. However, there's a catch that policy analysts always spot: this guarantee is contingent on Congress actually setting aside the money (appropriations). While the intent is to protect these offices, Congress still holds the ultimate power of the purse. If they decide not to fund them, the guarantee effectively evaporates. Still, it signals a strong legislative intent to keep these critical internal checks running.