Inside the Chantilly ICE Holding Facility: Your Rights If a Family Member Is Detained There

Last Updated: August 2026

Someone calls you and says a relative was taken to “the ICE building in Chantilly.” Your first question is probably: What happens now? The important thing to understand is that this location is not a detention center.

That distinction matters. Where your relative is can affect how long they may be held there, where they may go next, and how quickly you need to act.

Here is what this guide answers:

• What the Chantilly facility is, and what it is not
• What three members of Congress found when they walked in unannounced in August
• How long ICE may legally hold someone there after the federal court ruling of June 23, 2026
• The steps that matter in the first hours, starting with how to locate a person who may not appear in the system yet

At Law Group International, federal court litigation is at the center of our immigration practice, and detention cases in Northern Virginia are a regular part of that work.

What the Chantilly facility is

The building at 14797 Murdock Street in Chantilly, Virginia is the ICE Washington Field Office. It has hold rooms that ICE uses to temporarily process people in custody.

Hold rooms are not living quarters. They have no beds. The facility was designed to process a small number of people for a short period before they are transferred to an actual detention center, which is a different kind of facility with beds, medical care and visitation.

Understanding that design tells you what to expect. Nobody is meant to stay at Chantilly. If your relative is there, the operative question is not how to visit them, it is how fast you can act before a transfer.

The August 6 inspection and what the members of Congress found

On the evening of August 6, 2026, Representatives Don Beyer, James Walkinshaw and Suhas Subramanyam conducted an unannounced oversight visit at the Chantilly facility. They released a joint statement two days later.

What they reported was, on that day, reassuring. “At the time of our visit, we did not witness overcrowding,” the statement said. “ICE staff asserted that they are complying with a recent court order limiting stays at temporary processing facilities like Chantilly to 12 hours.”

The members were explicit that one visit settles nothing. “Our oversight does not end with one visit,” the statement continued, promising continued monitoring of the facility.

Speaking to local media afterward, Walkinshaw, for whom this was a second visit, drew the distinction carefully: “I didn’t see the conditions that were reported in the spring and summer. It doesn’t mean those conditions didn’t exist at that time.” Subramanyam said ICE appeared to be following procedure, while making clear he was not impressed by the facility itself.

Read that as a snapshot rather than a guarantee. It describes one unannounced visit on one day, which is exactly why the members said they intend to keep watching. Your relative’s experience on a different day is a separate question, and the practical steps below do not change based on it.

The context that explains the scrutiny

Chantilly did not attract three members of Congress by accident. The sequence matters, because it explains why the twelve hour limit is the number everyone is watching.

• Before June 2025: a standing policy limited stays in ICE hold rooms to twelve hours.
• June 24, 2025: ICE issued a nationwide waiver of that limit, allowing holds of up to seventy two hours.
• August 2025: the advocacy organization PODER VA reported people held at Chantilly for as long as five days, with counts reaching around one hundred.
• Fall 2025: the ACLU of Virginia documented as many as eighty people in a single room for more than a week, without legal access or adequate hygiene.
• September 26, 2025: Senator Mark Warner joined Representatives Beyer, Subramanyam and Walkinshaw for a visit, after roughly a month of seeking access. They reported improvement and called the overcrowding “wholly predictable.”
• June 23, 2026: a federal court struck the waiver down, together with the policies allowing arrests at courthouses.
• August 6, 2026: the unannounced visit described above.

The pattern is worth stating plainly. The conditions that drew attention to this building were the direct result of a policy change, and they receded after a court reversed it. That is useful to know, because it tells you the current limit rests on a court ruling rather than on an agency promise.

How long ICE can hold someone at Chantilly

On June 23, 2026, Judge P. Casey Pitts of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ruled in favor of the plaintiffs on key claims in Carmen Aracely Pablo Sequen v. Albarran. Final judgment was entered on June 30. The court found that federal agencies had abandoned long-standing limits without adequately explaining the change and struck down the policies. ICE’s memorandum of June 24, 2025 titled Nationwide Hold Room Waiver was one of them, alongside two ICE directives authorizing civil arrests inside courthouses and a parallel policy memorandum from the immigration courts.

Two features of that ruling matter to a family in Virginia.

First, the ruling did not create an absolute twelve-hour limit. It restored the earlier practice: twelve hours applies by default, and a field office that wants to hold someone longer has to seek an individualized waiver rather than rely on blanket authorization. That default is the twelve hour figure ICE staff cited to the members of Congress in August. The protection is real, because it removes the automatic permission that produced the conditions described above, but it is not a promise that your relative walks out at hour twelve.

Second, the ruling is nationwide in effect. The court applied the established principle that setting aside a nationwide policy under the Administrative Procedure Act operates nationwide, so the limit is not confined to California.

One important point: immigration policy can change quickly. A ruling of this kind can be appealed, and the precise scope of what it requires is the sort of question that gets litigated further. Treat the twelve hour default as the rule that applies now rather than as a permanent fixture, and ask an attorney to confirm where the case stands if it becomes central to your relative’s situation.

The practical takeaway is unchanged either way: a stay at Chantilly is meant to be measured in hours, so the transfer is coming, and you should be working on the assumption that it is coming soon.

If your family member is being held there

How to locate them

Start with the ICE Online Detainee Locator System. You can search by A-Number, which is the nine digit alien registration number assigned to a person’s immigration file, or by biographic details including full name, country of birth and date of birth.

Three things about the locator that cause families unnecessary panic:

• A person often does not appear in the system for roughly forty eight hours after being taken into custody. An empty result in hour three is not evidence that your relative is not in custody.
• The locator does not return results for anyone under eighteen.
• Names entered exactly as they appear on immigration documents return better results than the spelling used day to day.

If the locator returns nothing, the ICE ERO Detention Reporting and Information Line at 1-888-351-4024, staffed Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Eastern, and the ERO Washington Field Office in Fairfax, at 2675 Prosperity Avenue and (703) 285-6200, are the appropriate places to ask. One important clarification: the ICE office on Little River Turnpike in Annandale is the agency’s legal counsel office, which handles the government’s side of immigration cases. It does not handle custody or release, and calling it costs you time you do not have.

What to gather immediately

Our guide on what to do when a family member is detained by ICE in Virginia goes through this in more detail. Assemble these while you are waiting for the locator to update, not afterward:

• The A-Number, if the family has any document showing it
• Passport, birth certificate and any national identity document
• Any immigration paperwork already received, especially a Notice to Appear or anything with a hearing date
• Proof of time in the United States, such as leases, utility bills, tax filings or school records for children
• Documentation of medical conditions and current medications
• Names and contact details of United States citizen or permanent resident relatives

This is not paperwork for its own sake. An attorney who receives this package in the first hours can act on it in the first days, and the alternative is reconstructing a life history after the person has already been moved several states away.

Why the first hours matter more than they should

People are not held at Chantilly. They are moved from it, and the destination is not always nearby.

A transfer changes practical things that are easy to underestimate. It can change which immigration court hears the case, it makes attorney visits harder and more expensive, and it separates the person from the family gathering their documents. Every hour before a transfer is worth several after it.

The right not to sign anything without a lawyer

This is the single most consequential thing a detained person can control.

A person in ICE custody is not required to sign documents they do not understand, and some of the documents presented during processing carry serious consequences. A form agreeing to voluntary departure or waiving the right to see an immigration judge can close doors that would otherwise stay open. Voluntary departure comes with a departure deadline, and missing it triggers a civil penalty and a ten year bar to several forms of relief.

If you can pass one message to your relative, make it this one: ask for a lawyer, and do not sign until you have spoken to one. Our guide on what to do when ICE comes to your door covers the related rights during an arrest, and our overview of your rights in ICE detention goes further into what happens after processing.

Frequently asked questions

Can I visit my relative at Chantilly?

Chantilly is a processing facility with hold rooms rather than a detention center, and it is not set up for family visitation the way detention facilities are. In practice, families are far better served by locating the person, getting documents to an attorney, and preparing for the facility they are transferred to. Confirm visitation policies for that destination facility once the transfer is known.

Where will they take my relative from Chantilly?

Transfers from the Washington Field Office go to detention facilities that can be in Virginia or considerably farther away, and the destination is not announced in advance. This is why the locator should be checked repeatedly rather than once. The record you build in the first hours travels with the case regardless of where it lands.

Can a lawyer go into the facility?

Access to short term processing facilities has been one of the central complaints in the reporting on Chantilly, and it was part of what drew congressional oversight. Attorney access during short-term processing may be more limited than it is at a detention center. What an attorney can do immediately is file on the person’s behalf, contact the field office, and prepare for the transfer.

What is a hold room?

A hold room is a short term cell used to process people before transfer, without beds, and not designed for overnight stays. That description is why the twelve hour limit exists and why exceeding it drew litigation and oversight visits.

Does the twelve hour limit mean my relative will be released after twelve hours?

No, and this is the most common misreading. The limit governs how long a person may be held in that kind of short term facility. Reaching the limit means a transfer to a detention facility, not release. Release is a separate question that turns on bond, parole and the specifics of the case.

What to do next

Detention moves faster than paperwork, and the gap between those two speeds is where cases are lost. Locate the person, assemble the documents, get them to an attorney before the transfer, and make sure your relative knows not to sign.

At Law Group International, we litigate detention cases in federal court, including habeas corpus petitions and challenges to unlawful detention, alongside the immigration court work that follows. Attorneys Khalid Shekib and Daniela Lucena represent detained clients and their families across Virginia, Washington D.C., and Maryland. If bond is likely to become the central question in your relative’s case, our analysis of what to do now that ICE has eliminated bond hearings explains the options that remain, and our guide to habeas corpus in immigration cases covers the federal route.

Time in a hold room is limited by design. Use those first hours wisely.

 

This article provides general information and does not constitute legal advice. Every immigration case is different, and the law may change. For guidance on your particular situation, consult a licensed immigration attorney.

 

Official sources:

• Representatives Beyer, Walkinshaw and Subramanyam, joint statement on the unannounced oversight visit at the Chantilly ICE facility, August 8, 2026
• Senator Mark Warner and Representatives Beyer, Subramanyam and Walkinshaw, statement following the September 2025 visit to the Chantilly ICE field office
• Carmen Aracely Pablo Sequen, et al. v. Albarran, et al., No. 5:25-cv-06487-PCP, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California: partial summary judgment on the Administrative Procedure Act claims, June 23, 2026, final judgment entered June 30, 2026: https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/USCOURTS-cand-5_25-cv-06487/USCOURTS-cand-5_25-cv-06487-5
• ICE Online Detainee Locator System: https://locator.ice.gov/
• U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Enforcement and Removal Operations, Washington Field Office: https://www.ice.gov/field-office/washington-field-office

Last updated: August 2026.