Getty Images
A lawsuit filed by the ACLU of Michigan and the national ACLU seeks to force the release of records by both U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and the county jails it contracts with, on detained immigrants held in those facilities.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, says that despite “clear mandates” by law to make those records public, ICE has “increasingly taken steps to conceal records related to the thousands of detained immigrants who are held each day by county jails under contract with ICE.”
The lawsuit comes as the Trump administration gears up for what it has said will be the “mass deportation” of immigrants who are in the country illegally. On Wednesday, the GOP-led U.S. House passed legislation that greatly expands mandatory detention requirements of immigrants charged and arrested on petty crimes.
Congress clears immigrant detention bill for Trump’s signature on his 3rd day in office
The bill is heading to Trump’s desk.
According to a press release by the ACLU of Michigan, county jail records related to detained immigrants, including intake, medical, disciplinary, and grievance records, as well as communications with jail staff, are typically subject to Michigan’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) law. However, the agency claims ICE instructs county jails to withhold those records in response to state-law records requests, rendering most information about detained immigrants completely secret.
“A huge aspect of ICE detention is hidden in a black box,” stated the release.
The ACLU says to achieve secrecy about immigrant detention records, ICE uses an “obscure” federal regulation which says that county facilities shall not disclose records related to people detained by ICE, and should instead let ICE disclose them through the federal Freedom of Information Act.
However, it claims ICE abuses the regulation by forbidding counties from disclosing records that they have created and maintained, and that ICE doesn’t possess and has likely never even seen.
“Public scrutiny of government conduct is a hallmark of our democracy. This is especially true for jails, prisons, and immigration detention centers, where government officials have almost total control over the daily lives of incarcerated people—and where they exercise that control behind closed, locked, and guarded doors,” said Ramis Wadood, staff attorney for the ACLU of Michigan.
Wadood says the goal of the lawsuit is to put a stop to what he calls an “illegal and anti-democratic practice.”
The ACLU says without the records, immigration service providers cannot adequately assist detained immigrants, and organizations such as itself cannot fully shed light on the treatment of immigrants behind bars.
The lawsuit states that four county jails in Michigan are used by ICE for immigration detainment including the Calhoun County Correctional Facility, which it identifies as the primary location, as well the Monroe County, St. Clair County and Chippewa County jails.
“ICE shouldn’t be pursuing an end run around state transparency laws in an attempt to shield themselves from public scrutiny — particularly in light of the agency’s long history of abuse. With the Trump administration [pursuing] a mass deportation and detention agenda, it’s more important now than ever that we know what happens inside ICE detention facilities,” said My Khanh Ngo, staff attorney with the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project.
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.