When local police arrest someone in nearly any part of the United States, that person’s family can find out where they are being held. Jail rosters are posted online. Charges are public. That basic transparency disappears when Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) makes the arrest.

According to reporting by The Marshall Project, one man went missing for five days last December as ICE moved him between detention camps across the country. His family located him only after he had been deported to Somalia. In Portland, Oregon, a woman reportedly vanished for about two weeks, held without charges or a lawyer, until a congresswoman found her at a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) facility.

Numerous news reports describe people being held out of contact with family and attorneys for hours, days and sometimes weeks. ICE runs an online detainee locator, but immigration lawyers say it is often unreliable, slow to update and leaves some people out. This fall, ICE also stopped publicly sharing where thousands of people with final deportation orders are being held.

No family should have to search for a parent, child or spouse who has disappeared into government custody. Knowing where a loved one is held is the first step to hiring a lawyer, checking on their health or simply staying in touch.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees ICE and CBP, has the power to fix this today. Congress can make it law. Both should guarantee that every person in immigration detention can be found by their family and attorney, quickly and accurately.

Sign the petition to tell DHS and Congress that no one in the United States should vanish into custody without a trace.