In February, a woman in Long Island, New York, went with her two children to a scheduled check-in with ICE. Officers detained them. The mother, who asked to be identified only by her initials, M.S.P., because she fears retaliation from the government, said the family was taken far from their longtime home of New York and jailed in a hotel in Texas.

M.S.P. said in Spanish that the guards told her they were private contractors hired by ICE. She said she was permitted two three-minute phone calls to her mother-in-law. She said the guards warned her that if she told anyone where she was, her children would be taken away from her.

For nine days, she said they were not allowed to leave the room or even look out the windows. M.S.P. said two guards were in the hotel room at all times. Her teenager spent much of the time crying and worrying about failing missed classes. Her other child, age 12, worried about their cat back at home.

Her attorney later wrote in court filings that he could not find them in ICE’s detainee locator and was left in the dark about their location — unable to provide legal advice.

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