The January 20 and February 18 memos not only established new immigration enforcement priorities but also required U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to produce weekly reports regarding the agency’s enforcement activities and removals.
The American Immigration Council, along with the Immigrant Legal Resource Center and Mijente Support Committee, filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request on September 9, seeking to obtain a copy of these reports. The requesters asked for:
- The reports detailing ICE enforcement actions carried out pursuant to the memos, which include information about each action taken during a specific week, provide a narrative justification for the action, and identify date, time and location.
- The reports detailing removals with the same description, narrative and criteria described in the enforcement action reports.
- Copies of internal guidance received by ICE officers to help comply with this requirement.
A response to our request is crucial to understand how ICE has interpreted U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) new enforcement guidelines and whether enforcement actions and removals in the reports adhered to the newly adopted priorities. As new memorandum establishing the agency’s enforcement priorities takes effect on November 29, it is imperative that advocates and the public know whether ICE has a track record of following its own guidelines and intends to follow them in the future.
Access to this information would help the public more deeply understand ICE’s enforcement activities and hold the agency accountable.
