How to send money to someone in ICE detention

When you send money to a person held by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), it goes into that person’s account at the facility — most often a commissary or trust account they can draw on for daily needs. The important thing to understand first is that there is no single nationwide way to do it. Each ICE facility — whether it is an ICE-run Service Processing Center, a contract facility run by a company like CoreCivic or GEO, or a county jail holding people for ICE — sets its own deposit procedure through its operator and uses its own payment vendor. So the underlying system is the same everywhere (money in, account out), but the exact channel, vendor, address, and even who the money order is made out to are facility-specific. This page explains the common system and, more importantly, how to find the exact, current method for the facility where your person is held.

A note up front: this page has no sponsored or compensated links. Any vendor name, phone number, or website below appears only because ICE’s own published facility documents list it as an example — none is an advertisement or a recommendation, and you should always confirm the current vendor with your facility before sending.

What you need before you send money

Whatever method the facility uses, you will almost always need:

  • The person’s full legal name (and any aliases the government may have on file).
  • Their complete A-number (Alien Registration Number) — the nine-digit number ICE uses to track the case.
  • The facility where they are held, and sometimes a commissary number or housing unit the facility assigns.

If you do not know where the person is held, start with the ICE Online Detainee Locator at locator.ice.gov. You can search by A-number plus country of birth, or by name plus country of birth and date of birth. Once you have the facility, you can look up its deposit instructions and contact phone — our ICE detention facility directory links a page for each facility (for example, Eloy Detention Center).

What the money can be used for

Under ICE’s national detention standard on Funds and Personal Property (as of the 2008 standard), at intake each detainee’s funds and property are inventoried, receipted, stored, and safeguarded for the duration of detention, and returned to the person on transfer or release. The standard states that in many facilities a detainee’s deposited funds go into their commissary or canteen account.

From that account, the person can typically buy commissary items — hygiene products, snacks, and writing supplies — and at many facilities pay for phone calls. The same standard also lists access to a detainee’s personal funds to pay for legal services among the things detainees must be able to do, so money you deposit can go toward legal costs as well. At Krome, for example, a detainee withdraws funds for legal services by submitting an Emergency Request form to the housing officer.

The common ways to send money

Across ICE facilities, the deposit channels are usually some combination of these — not every facility offers all of them:

  • Online, through the facility’s deposit-vendor website. You register, then use the detainee’s name and A-number to find the account.
  • By phone, to the vendor’s line.
  • In person, at a lobby kiosk or cashier at the facility, where allowed.
  • By mail, sending a money order or cashier’s check to a facility or lockbox address.
  • Western Union Quick Collect, online, by phone, or at a walk-in agent.

Different facilities use different payment vendors. Ones families commonly encounter include Access Corrections (Keefe Group / inmatedeposits.com), ViaPath / GTL (TouchPay), Talton, Western Union, and MoneyGram — of these, the ICE documents below name Access Corrections / inmatedeposits.com, Talton, and Western Union. Treat all of them as examples, not a universal list — your facility may use a different vendor, and vendors change. Always confirm the current vendor from the facility’s official ICE.gov page or by calling the facility.

Two real ICE examples — and why the payee is not the same

The single most expensive mistake on this topic is assuming the money order is “made out to ICE” (or “made out to the detainee”) everywhere. It is not. Two ICE-published documents show the difference plainly. Read them as illustrations of how much facilities vary — and confirm your own facility’s current instructions before sending.

Example 1 — Adams County Detention Center, Mississippi

ICE’s published Instructions for Depositing Money into Detainee Trust for this CoreCivic contract facility describe two methods:

  • By mail: send a money order or cashier’s check made payable to the detainee. Personal checks and cash are not accepted. The instructions give an exact lockbox address — CCA Detainee Trust, then (Detainee Last Name, Inmate First Name / Detainee CCA Commissary #), Facility: ADAMS, P.O. Box 933488, Atlanta, GA 31193-3488 — and require the sender’s first and last name and return address on the envelope. Do not enclose letters, cards, pictures, or packages; they are neither forwarded to the detainee nor returned to the sender.
  • Western Union Quick Collect: online at www.westernunion.com/corrections, by phone at 1-800-634-3422, or at a walk-in agent. On the form the instructions list — Pay To: CORRECTIONS CORP OF AMERICA; Code City: TRUSTCCA; State: TN — and you enter the detainee’s commissary number and last name with no space between the number and the name.

These are the details ICE published for this facility. The vendor and lockbox naming reflect that document, which may have been updated since — confirm the current vendor, address, and payee with the facility before you send.

Example 2 — Krome Service Processing Center, Florida

ICE’s deposit process for Krome (revised August 2016), an ICE-run Service Processing Center, lists three ways to receive funds — internet, telephone, and authorized money order:

  • Internet or phone: the Keefe Detainee Trust Account at www.inmatedeposits.com or 1-866-345-1884 — funds usable for both the commissary store and detainee phone calls — or Talton Pre-Paid Phone Services at www.taltoncommunications.com or 1-866-516-0115, with those funds usable for the phone system only. You register, then use the detainee’s name and A-number to find the account.
  • Money order: only U.S. Postal Service money orders are accepted, made out to ICE, with the detainee’s full name and complete A-number written at the bottom. Any other type, or an incorrectly completed money order, is returned to the sender. Do not send cash in the mail — it is returned.

So at Adams County the paper money order is payable to the detainee, and at Krome the USPS money order is payable to ICE. That is exactly why you must read your own facility’s instructions and make the money order payable exactly as they say.

Rules that trip people up

A few rules hold true across the ICE instructions above — safe defaults that prevent rejected deposits:

  • Always include the person’s full legal name and complete A-number (and the commissary number or housing unit when the facility asks for it). Missing or wrong identifiers are the most common reason a deposit cannot be matched to an account.
  • Make the money order payable exactly as your facility specifies — the detainee at some facilities, ICE at others. Confirm before you send.
  • No cash by mail. Cash is returned; personal checks are generally not accepted. A money order or cashier’s check is the standard paper method, and some facilities accept only U.S. Postal Service money orders.
  • Do not put letters, cards, or photos in the money envelope. At Adams County, for example, such items are neither forwarded nor returned. Send correspondence separately, following the facility’s mail rules.

How long it takes, fees, and limits

These vary by facility and vendor, so treat the following as general guidance and confirm the specifics with your vendor before sending:

  • Timing. Electronic deposits (online, phone, kiosk, Western Union) typically post fastest, often within roughly a day or two; a mailed money order takes longer because of delivery, verification, and posting. If the person needs funds quickly, an electronic channel is usually the faster route.
  • Fees. Vendors charge a per-transaction fee that varies by amount and method — check the vendor’s posted fee schedule before you send. Mailing a money order avoids the vendor’s transaction fee, but you still pay the money-order fee. We do not list specific fee figures here because they change and depend on the vendor.
  • Limits. A facility or vendor may cap how much you can send per transaction or per period. Confirm any limit directly with the vendor or facility rather than assuming.

Avoid scams

Use only the official vendor and instructions for the specific facility — taken from the facility’s official ICE.gov page or confirmed by calling the facility. Scammers target the families of detained people, and a wrong or fraudulent payment channel can cost you the money with no recourse.

No legitimate process asks you to wire money to a private individual to “release” or “bond out” a detainee outside the official immigration-bond process. If someone contacts you demanding payment to a personal account to get a person released, treat it as a scam. An immigration bond is posted through a formal government process — see how immigration bonds work for what the real process looks like.

Find your facility and its exact method

The reliable path is always the same:

  1. Locate the person. Use the ICE Online Detainee Locator at locator.ice.gov — search by A-number and country of birth, or by name plus country of birth and date of birth.
  2. Open that facility’s official ICE.gov page (or call the facility) for its current deposit instructions — vendor, channels, mailing address, and the payee for a money order.
  3. Follow those instructions exactly, including who the money order is payable to and the identifiers to include.

Our ICE detention facility directory gives you a page for each facility with its contact phone, so you can reach the right place and confirm the current method before you send anything.

Last verified: 2026-06-27. General information, not legal advice. Deposit methods, vendors, mailing addresses, fees, limits, and the payee on a money order are set by each ICE facility and its operator and can change at any time — always confirm the current instructions from the facility’s official ICE.gov page or by calling the facility before you send money. For any specific case, contact a licensed immigration attorney or BIA-accredited representative.