March 2024

Greetings. This installment of Immigration Disclosures highlights how the Council celebrated Sunshine Week to promote government transparency, as well as our most recent legislative transparency efforts and newly published report on Border Patrol practices in northern Ohio.

Initial Disclosures:

In February, the Council and our partners at the American Immigration Lawyers Association and the National Immigrant Justice Center submitted a list of recommendations to Congress to ensure Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) complies with congressional reporting requirements. The recommendations included reporting ICE detention contracts, the publishing of ICE detention facilities’ inspection reports, and data on ICE detention, among others. Read the full list here.
During Sunshine Week, the Council and the Black Alliance for Just Immigration wrote about the difficulties advocates face in obtaining public records from local entities under states’ laws, and the need for reforms at the state level that prioritize public access to information.
The Council also hosted a webinar with immigration practitioners discussing the importance of litigating requests under the Freedom of Information Act when agencies fail to provide requested documents as required by the law. Watch the webinar here.

Report

On March 19, the Council and Advocates for Basic Legal Equality (ABLE) published a report highlighting problematic practices used by U.S. Border Patrol agents from the Sandusky Bay station. The report analyzed narratives and data that Border Patrol provided to the Council and ABLE as a result of a FOIA lawsuit. The data suggests that Border Patrol agents, with the help of local law enforcement, target Latin American men with darker skin colors between the ages of 23 and 40. Almost half of the arrests included in a systematic sample of arrest reports fit within this specific profile. If the age range is broadened to include the ages between 18 and 55, the number of arrests jumps to 67.6%.

The report also described unjust tactics law enforcement agencies used against men of color. For example, local law enforcement agencies in Ohio such as the Ohio State Highway Patrol often stopped Latinos and asked for drivers and passengers’ immigration identifications, even if the drivers had valid driver’s licenses. The investigation also uncovered instances where Border Patrol agents and local law enforcement officers used individuals’ lack of English as a factor to justify interrogations about their immigration status.

The Council and ABLE made several recommendations to both Ohio lawmakers and to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The recommendations seek to limit practices that allow local law enforcement to question drivers’ immigration status and advocate for the development of greater awareness and oversight of racial profiling practices that may be leading to the unjust treatment of Latinos in places like Ohio.

Why does this matter?

Many of the individuals detained by local law enforcement ended up in immigration detention and then removed despite that local police and Border Patrol violated their rights.
Latinos, U.S. citizen children, and immigrants legally in the United States also were detained by Border Patrol.

Read more: Ohio, We Have a Problem: Border Patrol and Local Law Enforcement’s Pattern and Tactics of Abuse in Ohio’s Immigration Enforcement

The American Immigration Council works to hold the
government accountable on immigration issues. We harness freedom of information requests, litigation, and advocacy to expose the wrongdoing and promote transparency within immigration agencies. Make a donation today.

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