The Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI) has filed a lawsuit against President Joe Biden's Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), accusing the agency of withholding internal information related to its policy of concealing the identities of arrested criminal illegal immigrants.
Dale Wilcox, from IRLI, announced on Thursday that the watchdog group is taking legal action against ICE following the agency's failure to respond to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. The request sought internal information and emails detailing how ICE determines when to disclose a criminal illegal immigrant's identity in press releases.
A previous investigation by IRLI revealed that under the Trump administration, ICE disclosed the names of 97 percent of criminal illegal immigrants identified in press releases. However, under the Biden administration, this figure has dropped to 67 percent.
Matt O'Brien, IRLI's Director of Investigations, criticized ICE's decision to withhold names from press releases, stating, "ICEs sudden decision to omit the names of alien offenders from press releases appears to be a deliberate attempt to keep the public from determining whether dangerous foreign criminals have been removed from the United States." He added, "Thats rather hypocritical coming from an administration that claims to be the most transparent in the history of the U.S."
Recent examples of this policy include a press release detailing the arrest of an unnamed 27-year-old illegal immigrant from Ecuador, convicted of second-degree assault and indecent assault of a child in Danbury, Connecticut. Another press release detailed the case of a 32-year-old Dominican illegal immigrant convicted of trafficking cocaine in Waterbury, Connecticut, but did not reveal the individual's identity.
Even in severe criminal cases, ICE has refrained from naming illegal immigrant suspects. For example, a 20-year-old Brazilian national was arrested by the agency this month on charges of child rape in Milford, Massachusetts, but his name was not disclosed.
Wilcox criticized the current administration's approach, stating, "This is yet another shameless attempt by the current administration to hide the disastrous impact of its immigration policies." He added, "Not including the names of criminal immigration violators is effectively flushing their cases down the memory hole so that watchdog groups will have a more difficult time holding this White House accountable for their destructive actions."
The case, Immigration Reform Law Institute v. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, No. 24-cv-1101, is currently before the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.
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