October 2025

Greetings. This installment of immigration disclosures highlights an update on U.S. Citizenship and Immigration staffing from the Nightingale litigation, the Council’s blog on data received from a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request on motions to dismiss in immigration courts, and a new FOIA request for 287(g) training materials.

Initial Disclosures:

USCIS’ latest report to the Court filed as a result of the injunction in Nightingale v. USCIS – a case brought by the Council, the National Immigration Litigation Alliance, the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, and the Law Offices of Stacy Tolchin to ensure USCIS processes FOIA requests for noncitizens’ immigration files, or A-files, in a timely manner – stated that it completed approximately 92% of A-file requests within the time allowed by FOIA. The agency raised its compliance from the 59% it reported during the previous period. The agency also stated that roughly 29% of positions in its FOIA office remain unstaffed and that a hiring freeze previously anticipated to end in July has been extended until at least October 15. See the full report here.
In response to our FOIA request on ICE courthouse arrests, the Council received a dataset from the Executive Office of Immigration Review (EOIR) for motions to dismiss filed by ICE between May to July 2025 in removal proceedings. Oral motions to dismiss, i.e. when the government asks the immigration court to close a case in open court rather than in writing, spiked on May 20, and were overwhelmingly granted by immigration judges on the spot. The data shows the extent of immigration judges’ acquiescence to this new deportation tactic despite it violating several immigration court procedures. Read more here.
As a result of the government shutdown, access to government records is grinding to a halt. The U.S. Attorneys’ Offices that represent the government in FOIA lawsuits have been furloughed and federal courts have paused certain civil matters, including FOIA cases, until the government reopens. Read more about the impact of the shutdown on immigration matters here.

The Council and NYCLU Filed a FOIA Request for ICE to Publish 287(g) Training Materials on its Website

On September 24, the Council and the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) filed a FOIA request for the materials ICE uses to train local officers who have assumed immigration enforcement duties under 287(g) agreements. These agreements are memorandums of understanding between ICE and state or local law enforcement agencies. Authorized by Section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), these agreements grant local officers some of the powers of federal immigration agents, including interviewing noncitizens to determine their status, detaining them, and issuing documents to begin removal proceedings. To ensure the public is well informed about these powers, the organizations’ request urges ICE and DHS to publish these records on ICE’s website because they fall under the proactive disclosure provisions of FOIA, which require agencies to post certain information in their electronic reading rooms.

Under a January 20, 2025, executive order, the Trump administration encouraged local law enforcement agencies to aid with the federal government’s immigration arrests by signing cooperation agreements under Section 287(g) of the INA. The number of 287(g) agreements has surged to over 1,000 nationwide. The collusion between immigration enforcement agencies and local law enforcement has not only led to incorrect arrests of U.S. citizens, but also numerous instances of racial profiling. The training received by local law enforcement officers is crucial to understanding the limits of local law enforcement authority.

Why does this matter?

This information is crucial for communities to understand how their local police may be involved in immigration enforcement as well as what these officers can and cannot do.
The agency must publish these records on its website so that communities can easily access information about the limits of the local law enforcement officers’ powers.