Since May 20, 2025, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), and the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) have been participating in the detention of noncitizens appearing for hearings in immigration courts across the country. At the same time, attorneys from ICE’s Office of Principal Legal Advisor (OPLA) have been moving to dismiss cases, pushing people into expedited removal, a process with fewer due process protections and no path to permanent residence. EOIR, which runs the immigration courts, directed its arguments to immigration judges to grant these dismissals on the spot. This directive violates agency policy and long-standing practice.
In response, Democracy Forward, LatinoJustice PRLDEF, and the American Immigration Council have filed a total of 11 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests seeking information about arrests and dismissals around immigration courts, and also demanded expedited processing. However, in violation of the law, the government has failed to provide timely or adequate responses. The EOIR has also refused to even search for records about the extent of its coordination with ICE, while ICE has ignored or delayed the processing of all the requests to it.
On October 15, 2025, the coalition filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York demanding the release of critical records about immigration arrests at immigration courts and the dismissal of immigration cases that federal agencies have unlawfully withheld in response to the FOIA requests. This lawsuit seeks to compel the four agencies to comply fully with FOIA and turn over all the documents responsive to 9 of the requests. It also demands the expedited disclosure of guidance directives and correspondence between ICE, DHS, EOIR, and the DOJ.
The case is Latino Justice PRLDEF et al. v. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement et al.
Timeline
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Complaint was filed.
