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June 2025
Greetings. This installment of Immigration Disclosures highlights a blog on the role of FOIA in seeking transparency on the government’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act, the Council’s lawsuit to obtain records about U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) transfers policy, and our FOIA request on changes to ICE’s parole policy.
Initial Disclosures
• On March 15, 2025, President Trump issued a proclamation invoking the Alien Enemies Act against members of Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua (TdA). Pursuant to the proclamation, the administration summarily deported over 200 Venezuelan migrants to a Salvadoran prison alleging they were TdA members. However, a newly declassified memo obtained through FOIA by the Freedom of the Press Foundation undermines some of the key assumptions President Trump presented in justifying the invocation of the AEA. Read the analysis we wrote with Freedom of the Press Foundation here [[link removed]] .
• On February 10, 2025, the Council and Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network (RMIAN) filed a FOIA request with ICE to obtain more information on how ICE transfers individuals in its custody. In March, a number of high-profile cases including that of Mahmoud Khalil and Rumeysa Ozturk came to light as individuals were detained in the northeast of the United States and quickly transferred to detention facilities in Louisiana. The pressing need for information about ICE’s procedures for transferring individuals prompted the Council to submit a request for expedited processing of the FOIA. However, ICE failed to respond to these requests. As such, the Council filed a lawsuit to compel the agency to respond to the request. Read about our lawsuit here [[link removed]] .
The Council Filed a FOIA Request on ICE Changes to Parole Policy
• On May 1, 2025, the Council filed a FOIA request with ICE to investigate its implementation of the “Securing Our Borders” Executive Order and “Guaranteeing the States Protection Against Invasion” Presidential Proclamation. The FOIA request seeks all memoranda, musters, guidance, and other similar records implementing these executive actions.
The FOIA request comes after President Trump took several sweeping executive actions [[link removed]] on immigration within hours of taking office. In an executive order titled “Securing Our Borders,” he directed ICE to detain noncitizens “to the maximum extent authorized by law,” and to realign policies for paroling noncitizens out of immigration detention with this directive. And in a proclamation titled “Guaranteeing the States Protection Against Invasion,” President Trump suspended the entry of noncitizens at the U.S.-Mexico border on the pretext that irregular migration across the border amounted to an “invasion.” He further ordered the Secretary of Homeland Security to “repel, repatriate, and remove” any noncitizen who crossed the border.
Executive actions like these hold heavy consequences for migrants at the border. The proclamation greatly restricts asylum protections and limits migrants’ ability to request humanitarian protection until the president deems the “invasion” to be ceased. Furthermore, the declaration of an “invasion” comes at a moment where migrant encounters have significantly decreased.
Under FOIA and a memo issued by the Department of Homeland Security’s Chief FOIA Officer, ICE should have proactively published the policies implementing these executive actions on its FOIA library.
However, ICE has failed to do so.
Why Does This Matter?
• Disclosing these records will enhance the public’s understanding of ICE’s changes to detention and removal due to these presidential actions.
• The records sought will shed light on changes that ICE has made to its guidance, including its parole guidance, pursuant to these presidential actions and new agency guidance for detention and some removals.
Read more: Investigating ICE’s Changes to Parole Policies and Other Implementation of President Trump’s Day One Immigration Actions [[link removed]]
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. [[link removed]]
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