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Welcome! Michigan Legal Help is a legal self-help website designed for people who live in the US state of Michigan. However, we have some immigration information that anyone is welcome to use.
Read this page to learn how to:
- find a US immigration lawyer
- get legal information about immigration or Michigan law
- find a detained relative or friend
Get Legal Help
How to Find an Immigration Lawyer
For general information about finding a good immigration lawyer, read:
- How to Get Good Legal Help (from immi.org)
- How to Find an Immigration Lawyer (from informedimmigant.com)
For Michigan-Based Immigrants
Michigan is a state in the US. If you're in Michigan or if your case is related to Michigan, you can call the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center at 734-239-6863. If you have questions about employment issues in Michigan, you can call the farmworker and immigrant worker rights hotline at 1-800-968-4046.
You can also use the Guide to Legal Help for information about finding lawyers and legal services in your area.
For Help in Other Places in the US
If your case is not related to Michigan, go to immi.org to search for free legal help. You can also search for a private lawyer on the American Immigration Lawyers Association's website.
Legal Information
Immigration Information
We have information about many immigration topics on our Immigration page. Our immigration resources are mostly based on federal law which applies across the US. But the rest of the legal information on our site only applies in Michigan, one particular state in the US.
If you are outside Michigan, only use this site for immigration information. For any other legal information, you need to check with sources from your own state, territory, or country.
Here are some other websites with US immigration information:
Legal Information on Other Topics
If you're based in the US state of Michigan, we also have information on many other legal topics. Visit the Resource Library or use the Guide to Legal Help to learn more.
Find a Detained Relative or Friend
Below is information on how to find detained relatives or friends. Unfortunately we are not able to look people up for you. This is all the information we have. If you need more help, go to the Get Legal Help section to learn how to find an immigration lawyer.
Adults
If you believe an adult relative or friend was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), use the ICE Detainee Locator to find them. There are two ways to use the locator:
- Search using the person’s A# and country of birth. The A# is an 8 or 9 digit number assigned to all immigrants in deportation proceedings and some other immigrants. The A# is found on all letters from DHS. If the A# has only 8 digits, add a zero in front of it so the system recognizes it. For example, if the person’s A# is A98765432, you must put a zero before the nine, making it A098765432.
- Search by name and country of birth. The first and last names must be an exact match (for example, John Doe will not find Jon Doe or John Doe-Smith). If ICE recorded the person’s name incorrectly, you will not be able to search for the person by name unless you know their recorded name. You can narrow the search by entering the person’s date of birth.
The locator will show that a person is “Not in Custody” if they were released or deported within the past 60 days.
Sometimes it can take several days for a person’s name to be added to the ICE Detainee Locator system. You can also use DHS Vine to try to locate someone you believe is detained.
You can use the ICE Detention Facilities website to find a list of detention facilities, their addresses, and public telephone numbers.
Children
To look for children under 18 years old, call or text the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) National Call Center Help Line at +1-800-203-7001.
International contact numbers are also available for the following countries:
- El Salvador - 5038006439
- Guatemala - 50218003750042
- Honduras - 50480027916001
- Mexico - 528008770404
Call the ORR National Call Center Help Line first at one of the numbers above. If you still cannot find the child, you can try contacting ICE. Contact the ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations field office nearest to where you think the child was picked up.
For More Information
For more information, about detention, deportation, and immigrants' rights, read Detention and Deportation.