The Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI) has filed a lawsuit against President Joe Biden’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for not disclosing internal agency information related to its policy of concealing the identities of criminal illegal aliens detained by agents.
On Thursday, Dale Wilcox of IRLI announced that the organization is taking legal action against ICE due to the agency’s lack of response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. The FOIA request sought internal documents and emails from ICE regarding the criteria used to determine when to disclose the identity of a criminal illegal alien in press releases.
Last year, IRLI conducted a study which revealed that during the administration of former President Donald Trump, ICE disclosed the identities of 97 percent of criminal illegal aliens in press releases, whereas under President Biden, only 67 percent of such individuals are being named in press releases.
“ICE’s sudden decision to omit the names of alien offenders from press releases appears to be a deliberate attempt to keep the public from determining whether dangerous foreign criminals have been removed from the United States,” IRLI’s Director of Investigations Matt O’Brien said in a statement. “That’s rather hypocritical coming from an administration that claims to be the most transparent in the history of the U.S.”
Recently, for instance, ICE released a press statement outlining the apprehension of an unidentified 27-year-old undocumented immigrant from Ecuador. This individual had previously been found guilty of second-degree assault and indecent assault of a minor in Danbury, Connecticut. In a separate incident, ICE provided details about a 32-year-old illegal immigrant from the Dominican Republic who was convicted of cocaine trafficking in Waterbury, Connecticut. However, the identity of this individual was not disclosed.
Even in the most severe criminal cases, ICE maintains its policy of not disclosing the names of undocumented immigrant suspects. As an example, a 20-year-old Brazilian citizen was apprehended by the agency this month on charges of child rape in Milford, Massachusetts. However, the individual’s name was not made available.
“This is yet another shameless attempt by the current administration to hide the disastrous impact of its immigration policies,” Wilcox said:
“Not including the names of criminal immigration violators is effectively flushing their cases down the memory hole so that watchdog groups will have a more difficult time holding this White House accountable for their destructive actions. The American people deserve transparency on this matter.”