New reporting from The Washington Post revealed that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is erasing data on immigrants with final deportation orders from a searchable online database of detained immigrants. This change — which took effect Sept. 15 — also stops immigration officers from sharing a detained immigrant’s location with attorneys or family over the phone.
Charles Moore, senior attorney at Public Justice and a lead attorney on two lawsuits challenging ICE’s unlawful fines against noncitizens, said the following:
“This is just another example of ICE trying to keep their lawlessness out of the public eye. When the agency takes life-altering actions—whether by detaining someone or by fining them exorbitant amounts — transparency is crucial. But time and again, ICE has taken steps to minimize that transparency, precisely because they do not think they are accountable to the public.
When ICE detains someone, that person has the right to counsel, who must be able to locate them. Likewise, that person’s family has a right to know where their loved one is.
Unfortunately, this latest move by ICE follows a pattern of inflicting maximum fear, confusion, and anxiety on a population of people that have established lives, families, and livelihoods in the United States. We’ve seen this time and again in our work challenging fines levied against noncitizens: the fear that the government will find you and exact its revenge, be it through debt collection or detention and disappearance.
While this new policy adds yet another layer of fear and confusion to those caught up in an already incomprehensible system, the legal community will find a way to continue to help those that need it — that is the nature of our work, and that is what we will fight to do.”