Can I sue ICE?
Not under Section 1983, which reaches people acting under state law, and only rarely against the agent personally. The working routes are a Federal Tort Claims Act claim against the United States, which has a two-year deadline, and a Section 1983 claim against a local jail that held you on an ICE detainer.
We hear this question often, and the answer has three parts. The statute this site is named for does not apply to federal agents. The court-made substitute has been cut back almost to nothing. And the routes that remain run against the United States itself, against local jails, and sometimes against private contractors, each with its own clock.
The full treatment is on the ICE and federal officers page. This post is the map.
Why Section 1983 does not reach a federal agent
Read the statute's first line. Section 1983 makes liable every person who acts "under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage, of any State" (42 U.S.C. § 1983). An NYPD officer acts under state law. A county correction officer acts under state law. An ICE officer acts under federal law, and the statute simply does not mention federal law.
For decades the workaround was a Bivens claim, a damages action against a federal officer implied directly from the Constitution. In Egbert v. Boule, 596 U.S. 482 (2022), the Supreme Court refused a Bivens remedy for excessive force by a Border Patrol agent and for First Amendment retaliation, and called extending Bivens "a disfavored judicial activity." In practice, a new personal damages claim against an immigration officer is a very steep climb.
Section 1983 was written for state and local officers. For a federal agent, the question is usually not "can I sue the officer" but "can I bring a claim against the United States."
The route that exists: the Federal Tort Claims Act
The Federal Tort Claims Act, the FTCA, lets you bring a claim against the United States for certain wrongs by its employees. It normally excludes intentional torts. But there is an exception to the exclusion, and it is the one that matters here: for "investigative or law enforcement officers," meaning those empowered to execute searches, seize evidence or make arrests, the FTCA does cover assault, battery, false imprisonment, false arrest, abuse of process and malicious prosecution (28 U.S.C. § 2680(h)).
The FTCA clock: two years, then six months
The claim must be presented in writing to the agency within 2 years after it accrues. If the agency denies it, suit must be filed within 6 months after the final denial is mailed (28 U.S.C. § 2401(b)). You may not sue until the agency has finally denied the claim, and if the agency has not acted within six months you may treat the silence as a denial (28 U.S.C. § 2675(a)). The deadline tool counts both dates.
The newest Supreme Court word on the FTCA is Martin v. United States, No. 24-362, decided June 12, 2025. FBI agents raided the wrong house. The Court held that the law-enforcement proviso overrides only the intentional-tort exception, not the separate discretionary-function exception, and that the Supremacy Clause is not a defense in an FTCA suit. Then it sent the case back to the lower court. That is a remand, not a final judgment for the people whose home was raided. It keeps the door open and leaves the government its discretionary-function argument. The wrong-house raids page covers the state and local version of the same facts.
When a local jail held you for ICE
Here Section 1983 comes back in, because the jailer is a county or city employee.
An ICE detainer is a form asking a jail to hold someone past the time they would otherwise walk out. Three decisions frame what happens when a jail says yes.
- The Third Circuit, which covers New Jersey. Detainers are requests, not commands, and a county that chooses to hold someone on one can be liable under Monell (Galarza v. Szalczyk, 745 F.3d 634 (3d Cir. 2014)).
- New York. State law does not authorize local officers to make civil immigration arrests, and holding a person past release on a detainer is an unlawful new arrest (People ex rel. Wells v. DeMarco, 168 A.D.3d 31 (2d Dep't 2018)).
- Florida. A federal court held on May 30, 2025 that a sheriff violated the Fourth Amendment by holding a U.S. citizen on a detainer while ignoring proof of citizenship (Brown v. Ramsay, S.D. Fla.). Florida law nonetheless requires agencies to honor detainers (Fla. Stat. § 908.105), which puts Florida jails in a different position from New York's.
We do not publish anything here about New York's 2026 legislative package on jail holds and 287(g) agreements, because we have not verified whether it was signed or when it takes effect. The immigration detainers page will carry it once we have.
Against a county, the clocks are the ordinary ones: three years for the federal claim in New York, two in New Jersey, four in Florida, and for a New York state-law claim a notice of claim within 90 days.
Private detention contractors, and first steps
Some detention facilities are run by private contractors. On February 25, 2026, in GEO Group v. Menocal, No. 24-758, the Supreme Court held that a contractor's claim to share the government's protection (the Yearsley defense) is a defense on the merits, not an immunity from suit, so a contractor that loses that argument early cannot stop the case for an immediate appeal. It has to litigate like any other defendant.
If any of this describes you or someone in your family:
- Write down the dates: the arrest, the day release was due, the day of transfer.
- Keep every paper: the detainer form, release papers, property receipts.
- Note which agency's officers did what. Local, state and federal uniforms get confused, and the claim depends on the answer.
- If someone is still detained, that comes first, before any damages claim.
If a criminal charge is open, a person with a pending charge should talk to their defense lawyer before describing the arrest to anyone; the criminal case and civil case page explains why. And if your status is the worry, read the immigration status page first.
ICE and federal officers
Bivens after Egbert, the FTCA in full, and which agency answers for what.
The full page →Held on a detainer
When the county jail kept you for ICE, and why the county may answer for it.
Detainers →Status and your claim
Undocumented people are persons under the Constitution. What that means in practice.
Immigration status →Common questions
I am undocumented. Can I bring a civil rights claim at all?
Yes. Section 1983 protects any citizen or other person within the jurisdiction, and the Supreme Court has said that whatever a person's status under the immigration laws, that person is surely a person under the Constitution (Plyler v. Doe, 1982). Immigration status does not take away the right to sue. It does raise practical questions, which the immigration status page addresses.
How long do I have to bring a claim against a federal agency?
A Federal Tort Claims Act claim must be presented in writing to the agency within two years after it accrues. Suit must then be filed within six months after the agency mails its final denial. You cannot sue until the agency has finally denied the claim, and if it does nothing for six months you may treat that as a denial.
A county jail kept me two extra days because of an ICE detainer. Who is responsible?
Possibly the county. Courts have held that an ICE detainer is a request, not a command, so a county that chooses to hold someone on one can be liable for that choice. In New York, an appellate court has held that holding a person past their release on a detainer is a new arrest that state law does not authorize local officers to make.
Tell us what happened.
One conversation with an attorney, in your language. We tell you which claims the facts support, which deadline runs first for the agency involved, what evidence to preserve this week, and whether a pending criminal case changes the timing. If it is not a case we can take, we say so and tell you where to go.
(718) 484-7510If a criminal charge is still open, talk to your defense lawyer before you describe the arrest to anyone, including us. English, Russian and Spanish in-house; an interpreter for any other language. Contingency fee, confirmed in writing before we begin.