Check ICE Custody Releases

ICE Release and Transfer Paths

ICE operates a federal civil immigration system. It is distinct from the Pocahontas County Sheriff, West Virginia courts, and the West Virginia Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation. A person may leave Tygart Valley Regional Jail or another WVDCR placement because ICE assumed custody. That event ends one placement, but it is a transfer of custody. It does not establish release into the community.

An ICE case can lead to continued detention, transfer between immigration facilities, release under conditions, removal from the United States, or another agency taking custody. The public locator is designed to help find certain people now held in immigration detention. It is not a county release ledger and does not provide a complete historical movement file. When an online result is absent, the next step depends on the last verified custodian and the available identity information.

Confirm a Pocahontas ICE Movement

Start with the official ICE Online Detainee Locator. Use the identity route that matches the information available. An A-number, when known, is stronger than a name alone. Compare spelling, country-of-birth information, and other fields presented by the live service. Never select a record based only on a shared name.

1. Identify the last verified facility and the approximate date the person disappeared from its active view.
2. Search with the nine-digit A-number and country of birth when those details are available. Add leading zeros if the number is shorter.
3. For a biographical search, use the exact first and last name, country of birth, and optional date of birth.
4. Compare the ICE result with the WVDCR terminal movement. Look for a named receiving agency rather than assume release.
5. When the locator is inconclusive, contact the appropriate Enforcement and Removal Operations field office and provide the identifiers you can verify.

The public locator can help identify current immigration custody. It does not certify the exact time a person left a West Virginia jail. Request that event from WVDCR, which maintains its own jail booking and movement records. If a court order explains the state case, obtain it from the proper Pocahontas County court clerk.

No Pocahontas ICE Locator Match

A failed ICE search does not prove release. The locator covers certain people currently in ICE custody or held by CBP longer than 48 hours. It does not show records for people under 18. ICE guidance says some released records may remain visible for the prior 60 days, but not every record does. Processing, security, and discretionary limits also apply. Write down the search time, exact identifiers, and system checked before moving on.

Go back to the last confirmed custodian. For a Pocahontas County jail case, that is often the WVDCR regional-jail system and Tygart Valley Regional Jail, not a county-run jail database. Ask WVDCR for the terminal movement, effective date and time, release or transfer type, and receiving agency or destination category. If the response says ICE, use that as the bridge to an ERO inquiry.

ICE detainer

A notice or request connected to possible immigration custody; it is not proof of community release.

A-number

An immigration identifier that can make a locator search more precise.

Terminal movement

The last recorded event ending a specific facility placement.

Community release

A movement out of confinement, which may still carry legal conditions.

A county court order may explain why state detention ended, yet an order date is not the physical handoff time. Compare legal authority with the movement record. If the person also has a federal criminal case, the BOP locator and federal docket form a separate track.

ICE and WVDCR Release Records

Ask each custodian for the record it created. WVDCR can address admission, jail movement, and the transfer out of its placement. The Pocahontas County Sheriff may hold arrest, incident, or transport material created by that office. Pocahontas County Circuit or Magistrate Court can supply the relevant public case orders. ICE controls its own detention and release information.

A focused WVDCR request should identify the person by full name, date of birth, and offender identification number if known. Give the facility and date range. Ask for the admission record, chronological movement entry, terminal event, actual time, movement type, and receiving agency. Under the West Virginia Freedom of Information Act response rule, a state custodian must act as soon as practicable and within five days, excluding weekends and legal holidays, by producing records, arranging inspection, or explaining a denial in writing.

Federal access rules differ, and the research does not establish a local ICE counter, fee, phone number, or walk-in schedule for Pocahontas County. Do not invent one. Use the locator and the appropriate official ERO route. Make a narrow request, expect lawful limits, and seek releasable portions if part of a record cannot be disclosed.

Pocahontas Custody Geography

Local custody does not follow a simple county-building model. Tygart Valley Regional Jail in Belington serves Pocahontas County detainees. Denmar Correctional Center and Jail sits within Pocahontas County but is a state prison and jail operated by WVDCR. A person’s arresting agency, committing county, physical institution, and later receiving agency can all differ.

This split makes search fields important. Search by the person, then confirm the sentencing or committing county and the actual institution. If an ICE detainer appears, add the federal immigration track. The Pocahontas County release-record process covers the state and court sources needed to reconstruct the first part of that custody chain.

Does disappearance from the state list show ICE release? No. It shows only that the active view no longer answers the question. The WVDCR terminal movement and the later ICE record must be read together.

ICE Locator Scope and Limits

The ICE locator is not the BOP locator. ICE handles civil immigration detention, while BOP handles federal criminal imprisonment. Neither tool replaces West Virginia’s offender search. A person can have records in more than one system over time, so a useful timeline states which agency held the person at each step.

Do not use the West Virginia sex-offender registry as a general release lookup. Its scope is limited to registration duties. VINELink may provide status-change information for participating West Virginia jail and prison records, but it does not replace the federal ICE locator. Likewise, a VINE alert concerning departure from WVDCR does not prove that all custody ended.

For an exact gate time or release destination, seek the source record. Public interfaces are starting points. They may not show internal notes, protected information, or a complete historical chain. Treat a clear transfer as positive proof that one placement ended and equally clear proof that community release was not established at that point.

ICE Detainee Locator Contact

No operating ICE detention center was found in Pocahontas County. The official online locator is therefore the documented public starting point. The relevant ERO field office depends on the person’s custody location, not simply the county tied to an earlier arrest or case.

If no online result appears, the ICE Detention Reporting and Information Line is 1-888-351-4024. The researched schedule is Monday through Friday, excluding holidays, from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Eastern, with language assistance. Ask the appropriate ERO office to clarify whether “released from ICE custody” means community release, removal, transfer, or another disposition.

For the state-side movement, WVDCR central records is located at 1409 Greenbrier Street, Charleston, WV 25311, and its main telephone is 304-558-2036. For a Sheriff-created arrest or transport record, the Pocahontas County Sheriff is at 900 Tenth Avenue, Marlinton, WV 24954, telephone 304-799-4445.

Note: Contact the office that owns the requested event; sending every question to the arresting agency can delay a clear custody answer.