Shopping on Thin Ice: Venue Limits on ICE Detention Transfers to Prevent Forum Shopping

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the federal agency that manages the world’s largest civil immigration detention system, transfers hundreds of detained noncitizens to different detention centers every day at its sole discretion and for any reason, typically without advising the noncitizen’s counsel or family. This unchecked transfer power, in tandem with ICE’s power to begin deportation proceedings wherever and whenever it chooses, creates a ripe environment for forum shopping. This Note explores how the current system allows ICE to engage in forum shopping—by transferring noncitizens to regions of the country where their claims have a lower probability of success—to the great detriment of their cases and often their lives. This Note argues that the U.S. Congress should enact venue-protective legislation to safeguard noncitizens’ due process rights and prevent ICE from gaining an unfair advantage in deportation cases.