The public has a right to know how taxpayer dollars will be used to deport, ACLU says.
Nov. 19 (UPI) -- The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit seeking details from the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency into how it may execute a large deportation program.
On Monday, ACLU of Southern California Foundation vs. ICE was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California demanding that ICE "immediately" turn over its requested records. The ACLU contends the records will enable U.S. taxpayers to better understand the vague proposals of President-elect Donald Trump to deport millions of people under his administration.
"For months, the ACLU has been preparing for the possibility of a mass detention and deportation program and FOIA litigation has been a central part of our roadmap," Kyle Virgien, senior staff attorney at the ACLU's National Prison Project, said in a release.
The suit -- a joint legal effort by the ACLU, American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Southern California and the international law firm Mayer Brown LLP -- was filed after ICE failed to respond to ACLU SoCal's FOIA request in August 2024.
The Freedom of Information Act, according to Mayer Brown partner Sophie Mancall-Bitel, "requires federal agencies to disclose information requested by the public."
In a coordinated legal response to promises made by Trump during the campaign, the suit seeks scores of information or other data on how ICE's air travel infrastructure currently operates and could be expanded to facilitate Trump's pledge to realize a large-scale federal program to detain and deport more than 11 million civilians from the United States.
In 2023, ICE Air -- the network of for-profit, commercial and private chartered flights run by the agency to transport detainees between ICE detention facilities across the United States -- deported more than 140,000 people, according to the ACLU.
On Monday, Trump officially indicated he will declare an immigration national emergency and use military assets to carry out mass deportations, saying on social media it was "TRUE!!".
Mancall-Bitel said it's "more important than ever" that American taxpayers understand what federal resources could be used to forcibly remove people from the United States.
Recently, the Freedom of the Press Foundation was adamant that the press and public should proactively download records and data from federal agencies -- like the EPA, NOAA, U.S. Census Bureau, the CDC and others -- that experts believe likely will be targets of a second Trump administration.
Incoming White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed Trump will "marshal every federal and state power necessary to institute the largest deportation operation of illegal criminals, drug dealers, and human traffickers in American history."
Last week, Trump named his former Immigration and Customs Enforcement director, Thomas Homan, to be the next "border czar." Deportations will be "well-targeted," planned and led by non-military ICE agents and conducted "in a humane manner," Homan claimed.
Homan previously indicated that workplace roundups of immigrants are in the works in what experts say will cost taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars which will likely see a negative trickle-effect reaction in American businesses dependent on migrant labor that help fuel the U.S. economy in jobs U.S. civilians otherwise won't do.
Virgien says litigation concerning the Freedom of Information Act, otherwise known as FOIA, has so far been a "central part" of the ACLU's own "roadmap" to obtain relevant information from ICE Air that may reveal just what an expanded mass detention and deportation plan on such a historically large scale will look like.
An official with the ACLU's Southern California arm pointed out that "little is known" about Trump's agenda as he was largely vague in the campaign about how a second administration will achieve its ambitious goal.
"But what we do know is that this proposal has already instilled fear among immigrant communities," Eva Bitran, director of immigrants' rights at ACLU SoCal, said on Monday.
The ACLU had filed three lawsuits after several federal immigration agencies failed to comply with previously submitted FOIA requests. And according to ACLU officials, ICE responded by releasing some records that provide a little more insight to the agency's existing infrastructure and how it could be expanded to enact anti-immigrant policies.
"The public has a right to know how its taxpayer dollars could be used to fund deportation flights that would tear apart not only families, but also our communities," added Bitran.
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