Michigan free speech advocates filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday arguing some county jails and federal immigration officials are playing a shell game with records in an effort to shield public scrutiny of how people suspected of being in the U.S. illegally are treated while detained.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan sued U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement along with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The lawsuit comes as advocates prepare for President Donald Trump to carry out his campaign promise to create the largest deportation effort in the country’s history.
Representatives from ICE and DHS have not responded to questions about the lawsuit.
In the lawsuit, the ACLU argues an “obscure federal regulation” lets Michigan county jails refuse to provide documents under the state’s Freedom of Information Act, arguing ICE does not want them disclosed. At the same time, ICE officials often decline to provide those records under FOIA since in many cases they simply do not posses them, the lawsuit states.
“Public scrutiny of government conduct is a hallmark of our democracy. This is especially true for jails, prisons, and immigration detention centers, where government officials have almost total control over the daily lives of incarcerated people—and where they exercise that control behind closed, locked, and guarded doors,” said Ramis Wadood, a staff attorney for the ACLU of Michigan, in a statement.
“ICE has wrongly been misusing an obscure federal regulation to thwart scrutiny by keeping what should be public information secret.”
There are roughly 91,000 undocumented immigrants in Michigan, although it’s a difficult population to track and the number could be higher.
According to the lawsuit, four Michigan counties contract with ICE to detain people suspected of illegally immigrating: Calhoun County — the biggest provider — along with Monroe, St. Clair and Chippewa counties.
The ACLU points to one particular case in Calhoun County along with other Michigan examples to demonstrate why they believe local jails and ICE are intentionally misusing the law and withholding documents.
In 2019, Jilmar Ramos-Gomez was wrongfully detained by ICE in Calhoun County on suspicion he was in the country illegally. He is a U.S. citizen and served in the U.S. Marine Corps.
The ACLU filed a FOIA with Calhoun County, but the jail refused to provide records. They argued a federal regulation known as the “records rule” prevented them from releasing documents about immigration detention that ICE did not want disclosed.
That’s an intentional misreading of the rule used to obscure records that might be embarrassing, the ACLU argues.
“The Records Rule has placed most records about county-held immigration detainees in an impenetrable black box, shielding them from public scrutiny,” the lawsuit states.
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The ACLU wants the federal court to prohibit ICE and local jails from citing the “records rule” when refusing to provide documents in response to a FOIA.
“ICE shouldn’t be pursuing an end run around state transparency laws in an attempt to shield themselves from public scrutiny — particularly in light of the agency’s long history of abuse,” said My Khanh Ngo, a staff attorney with the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, in a statement.
“With the Trump administration pursing a mass deportation and detention agenda, it’s more important now than ever that we know what happens inside ICE detention facilities.”
Reach Dave Boucher at dboucher@freepress.com and on X @Dave_Boucher1.
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