FOIA Filed As Part of Coordinated Campaign With 49 ACLU Affiliates
ALBUQUERQUE, NM — The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico filed a Freedom of Information Act request yesterday with its local U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) office to expose how Trump administration officials are interpreting and executing the president’s immigration ban, acting in violation of federal courts that ordered a stay on the ban’s implementation. The filing today is part of a coordinated effort from 49 ACLU affiliates, which filed 18 FOIAs with CBP field offices and its headquarters spanning 55 international airports across the country.
“If local CBP offices are continuing to enforce President Trump’s immoral and un-American immigration ban in defiance of the court’s order halting its implementation, we need to know about it,” said ACLU of New Mexico Legal Director Eliza Bechtold. “We are a nation of laws, and this administration cannot pick and choose which ones they feel like following.”
Media reports indicate that CBP officials detained and deported individuals, even after federal courts ordered officials to stop enforcing the executive order following a court challenge from the ACLU and other organizations.
“It is imperative that the public learn if federal immigration officials are blatantly defying nationwide federal court orders that block President Trump’s unconstitutional immigration ban,” said Mitra Ebadolahi, Border Litigation Project Staff Attorney with the ACLU of San Diego and Imperial Counties. “To shed light on this critical issue of pressing public concern, 49 ACLU affiliates are using the Freedom of Information Act to expose Customs and Border Protection’s abuse of power.”
The Trump administration has yet to inform the public of how many refugees, visa holders, and legal permanent residents have been affected by this action.
The following ACLU affiliates participated in this coordinated FOIA filing: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Northern California, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, San Diego—California, South Carolina, Southern California, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Washington, D.C., West Virginia, Wisconsin
The FOIA requests can be found here:
https://www.aclu-nm.org/sites/default/files/field_documents/foia_to_cbp.pdf
The ACLU national release is available here:
https://www.aclu.org/news/aclu-files-demands-documents-implementation-trumps-immigration-ban
