EVANSVILLE — In the midst of President Donald Trump’s crackdown, federal immigration officials have picked up more people from the Vanderburgh County jail so far this year than in all of 2024 – but local prosecutors don’t know where all of the detainees are.
That includes an 18-year-old man who has gone missing into the system since his arrest on a minor traffic offense earlier this year. Neither local nor federal officials could tell the Courier & Press where he is.
The detentions by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, commonly referred to as ICE, have targeted people who were arrested on local charges in and around Evansville and who were subsequently booked at the Vanderburgh County jail.
Their charges range from battery against a pregnant woman to driving without ever having obtained a license.
But a lack of communication between ICE, the Vanderburgh County Sheriff’s Office and the attorneys and prosecutors involved in the detainees' cases have led to confusion as local judges find that defendants "failed to appear" for their court hearings when they were in ICE custody.
"It won’t come up on the court’s radar until the next court date and someone doesn’t appear," said Stephen Owens, Vanderburgh County's chief public defender. "I don’t think that communication is happening.”
When approached with questions about the ICE detentions, Vanderburgh County Sheriff Noah Robinson said he would work to quickly develop protocols for notifying prosecutors and courts when a jail inmate is taken into custody by ICE while their local cases are still pending.
Background: How the Vanderburgh County jail refers potential immigration violations to ICE
According to Robinson, the sheriff's office alerts ICE each time a suspected undocumented immigrant is scheduled to be released from the jail. The federal government can then file what is known as an immigration detainer asking the sheriff's office to hold the person for an additional 48 hours so ICE can assume custody of them.
The Courier & Press reviewed data showing ICE had lodged 10 immigration detainers against Vanderburgh County jail inmates since late January. Sheriff Noah Robinson said he knew of 12 detainers so far this year, though he was not sure if ICE had assumed custody of all of the people.
That's much higher than 2024. Last year, Robinson said his agency alerted ICE 75 times to the presence of suspected undocumented persons in the jail, but ICE only picked up four people pursuant to immigration detainers in all of 2024.
The people sought for detention by ICE in 2025 hailed from Haiti, Venezuela, Guatemala and Mexico, according to sheriff’s office data. The circumstances surrounding their entries into the United States, or the status of their immigration cases, were not immediately clear.
'We do not know where the defendant is located'
In at least one case, the Vanderburgh County Prosecutor's Office says it had been unable to locate a man charged with operating a motor vehicle without a license once he was scheduled to be picked up by ICE from the Vanderburgh County jail in February.
"We do not know where the defendant is located," Chief Deputy Prosecutor Winston Lin said of 18-year-old Eduardo Garcia, whose name is included on the sheriff's office spreadsheet listing persons who were taken into custody by ICE.
Court records show Garcia was arrested and charged in February with willfully driving without ever having obtained a license and a tail light infraction. Garcia posted bail to secure his release from the Vanderburgh County jail, but ICE issued an immigration detainer asking the sheriff's office to hold Garcia so he could be taken into federal custody.
The sheriff's office data lists Garcia as a citizen of Guatemala who worked at an Evansville factory and notes ICE was scheduled to pick Garcia up on Feb. 17 — one day before Garcia was set to appear before a Vanderburgh County judge for an initial hearing. Court records list Garcia as failing to appear, leading the judge to issue a warrant for his arrest.
Exactly where Garcia and some of the other detainees went after they were picked up by ICE remains unclear. Garcia was not listed in ICE's database of its current detainees as of this week.
An official at the ICE detention center in Clay County, the closest such facility to Evansville, said Garcia was not in custody there as of Tuesday.
A Courier & Press reporter provided Garcia’s local case information to an ICE representative with the agency's detention, removals and information hotline, but the representative could not locate Garcia and referred the reporter to ICE’s Public Affairs Office, which said it was looking into the matter.
An ICE representative said it was possible that Garcia had two last names, one of which was not included in state court records, thus complicating efforts to search for him in ICE’s detainee locator system.
'The policy is so unclear,' Evansville attorney says
At least three other men charged with offenses in Vanderburgh County failed to appear for scheduled court appearances after ICE lodged an immigration detainer against them, according to court records and sheriff's office data.
Barry Blackard, an Evansville-based criminal defense attorney, said one of his clients was picked up by ICE from the Vanderburgh County jail after he had posted bail in recent weeks.
"He keeps going back and forth between state custody and ICE custody," Blackard said. "The policy is so unclear and there's no one to speak with at ICE."
Owens said public defenders in Indiana have noticed an uptick in ICE detentions since Trump took office in January. He thinks state courts, law enforcement agencies and attorneys were caught off guard by logistical hurdles and a lack of coordination between the various agencies who operate local criminal justice systems and federal immigration enforcement.
“I don’t think we’re getting the communication we need to get between everybody,” Owens said. “That would require the jail to communicate with somebody. Maybe they notify the court, but it’s probably on a hit-or-miss basis.”
Robinson said he had not been made aware that attorneys weren't being quickly notified when a person was taken into federal custody by ICE. He vowed to set up a system that would keep local courts, prosecutors and potentially defense attorneys in the loop.
It’s an issue that could only grow in importance in the months to come. Trump administration officials say local jails and sheriff’s offices will play a key role in efforts to carry out the “mass deportations” Trump promised on the campaign trail.
And unlike in so-called “sanctuary” jurisdictions, where local laws ban jails from working directly with ICE, sheriff’s offices in Indiana are increasingly required by state law to work closely with the federal government on immigration enforcement as it relates to county jails.
When asked if ICE would move quickly to target undocumented prisoners housed in jails and prisons, Trump’s “border czar,” Tom Holman, said ICE had been “handcuffed” under President Joe Biden’s administration, but that under Trump, the agency would begin making arrests “day one.”