Washington DC - The whereabouts of thousands of people detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement are being scrubbed from an online database by the agency amid escalating deportations.

A new Associated Press report revealed that ICE has instituted a new policy of removing information on the locations of detained individuals who have been issued final deportation orders.

The move has seen thousands of people removed from its online detainee locator system, which is used by friends, family, and legal representatives to keep track of those who have been abducted and incarcerated by immigration authorities.

Three ICE officials who spoke to AP under condition of anonymity because they were not permitted to reveal such information to the press. The reports come only days after DoorDash driver Wilber Rafael Garces Perez was shot by an immigration agent in Texas on Sunday.

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To verify the information, AP contacted lawyers of migrants subjected to final deportation orders, who confirmed that their clients had disappeared. The American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) issued a warning about the policy change on Friday.

Lawyers said the disappearances may be part of an attempt by President Donald Trump's administration to speed up deportations by making legal challenges harder.

ICE neither confirmed nor denied the policy change in a statement to AP, while adding that detained people with final deportations are being prioritized for removal.

"Families are freaking out because they think the person has been deported and they don't know where the person might be," said AILA Senior Director of Government Relations Greg Chen.

"On the attorney side, this has serious implications for the ability to contact their client," he warned. "It certainly has implications about how it will interfere with the attorney-client relationship."