Search Otay Mesa ICE Detainees

Otay Mesa ICE Overview

Otay Mesa Detention Center is listed by ICE as a detention facility at 7488 Calzada de la Fuente, San Diego, CA 92154. The research identifies CoreCivic as the operator under ICE contract. California DOJ's 2026 immigration detention report describes the facility as housing detainees since 2015 and serving adult female and male civil detainees. It is not a county jail and not a CDCR prison.

Otay Mesa is a custody geography as well as a facility name. The area includes Sheriff facilities such as Rock Mountain, East Mesa, and George Bailey, plus Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility and this ICE contract facility. The operator determines the search system. Otay Mesa Detention Center immigration custody is searched through ICE ODLS.

Otay Mesa ICE Capacity

The California DOJ 2026 immigration detention conditions report gives Otay Mesa Detention Center an ICE bed capacity of 1,142. The same research notes adult female and male civil detainees. That capacity belongs to the ICE/CoreCivic contract facility, not to the San Diego Sheriff jail-system rated capacity and not to CDCR RJD.

Otay Mesa ODLS Search

Use the ICE Online Detainee Locator System for Otay Mesa Detention Center. ICE ODLS has two main search routes. The first uses an A-number and country of birth. ICE says the A-number must be exactly 9 digits, so add leading zeros if the number has fewer than 9 digits. The second route uses biographical information, including full name, date of birth, and country of birth.

1. Open ICE ODLS and choose A-number search if the A-number is known.
2. Enter the 9-digit A-number and country of birth, adding leading zeros when needed.
3. Use full name, date of birth, and country of birth when no A-number is available.
4. If ODLS fails, contact the appropriate ICE ERO field office or the facility duty line for next steps.

ODLS covers people currently in ICE custody or who have been in CBP custody more than 48 hours. It cannot search records for persons under 18. It is a detainee locator, not a mugshot gallery, and it should not be used for county jail or state-prison custody.

The successful manifest image below matches the official ICE facility page. The ICE Otay Mesa Detention Center page identifies the facility that should be paired with ODLS lookup.

The image source is facility-specific. ODLS itself remains the search system for locating a current ICE detainee.

Otay Mesa Contact Card

Use ICE and facility contact channels for Otay Mesa Detention Center. Do not call the San Diego Sheriff custody line for an ICE detainee unless there is a separate county jail booking question. The ICE duty line captured in the research is the facility-specific phone contact.

Otay Mesa Visit Rules

The research did not capture a full day-by-day Otay Mesa Detention Center visiting table. ICE detention visitation should be verified through the official ICE facility page and facility contact before travel. County jail visit schedules, Sheriff eVisit, and SmartInmate rules do not control ICE civil detention visits. CDCR prison visiting rules and BOP federal visiting rules also do not apply.

Before travel, confirm that the detainee is still at Otay Mesa Detention Center through ODLS and the facility duty line. Immigration detention status can change through transfer, release, removal proceedings, or a move tied to another agency hold. A visit plan based only on an old phone call or an earlier list can fail if the custody location changed after the last update.

Otay Mesa Mail Money

Mail, phone, and money processes for Otay Mesa Detention Center are ICE/CoreCivic facility processes. The research did not capture a specific mail-format table, phone vendor, or money-deposit fee schedule for this facility. Do not use the San Diego Sheriff Mail Processing Center in Santee for an ICE detainee, and do not apply Sheriff commissary rules to immigration detention.

Because immigration detention is civil, the terminology is different. A person at Otay Mesa Detention Center is a detainee, not a county jail inmate serving a local sentence and not a CDCR prisoner. Immigration court, ICE custody status, and any separate criminal case records may all need to be checked through different systems.

Otay Mesa ICE Records

ICE ODLS answers a narrow question: whether the person is located in current ICE custody or, in the captured ICE factsheet language, has been in CBP custody more than 48 hours. It does not serve as a jail roster, a criminal-history search, a mugshot gallery, or a full immigration case file. If ODLS returns no match, verify the A-number format, country of birth, full name, and date of birth before concluding the person is not in immigration custody.

Otay Mesa Detention Center can also be confused with nearby custody sites because several facilities share the broader Otay Mesa area. A person at Rock Mountain Detention Facility or George Bailey Detention Facility is in Sheriff custody and should be checked through Who's In Jail. A person at Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility is a CDCR prisoner and should be checked through CIRIS. A person at Otay Mesa Detention Center is an ICE detainee and should be checked through ODLS.

Otay Mesa Custody Caveats

A person can move between systems, but each system remains separate. A San Diego County arrest can begin with a city police jail or Sheriff jail. A state-prison sentence can lead to CDCR. A federal criminal case can involve BOP custody. A civil immigration hold or detention can involve ICE. Otay Mesa Detention Center is the ICE part of that map.

If ODLS has no match, check spelling, date of birth, country of birth, and A-number formatting. If the person is under 18, ODLS will not search the record. If the person was only recently encountered by CBP, ODLS scope may depend on whether the person has been in CBP custody more than 48 hours. For county jail custody, search the San Diego County inmate population and Sheriff roster path instead.