Immigrant legal groups sue over hidden detainees

A coalition of immigration legal organizations filed a lawsuit in federal court in Massachusetts on Tuesday, challenging a recent Department of Homeland Security policy that removed certain detainees from public location databases.

For over a decade, DHS maintained an online system that allowed attorneys and family members to locate individuals held by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The plaintiffs allege that in September, the agency stopped revealing the locations of people with final orders of deportation through this system, a practice that had been standard procedure for years.

Stephanie Alvarez-Jones, an attorney with the National Immigration Project, described the change as an unannounced removal of thousands of people from public view. She stated that the government altered the system without legal justification, creating a situation where families and lawyers often spend weeks or months unable to find their clients or relatives.

The lawsuit names Greater Boston Legal Services and Rian Immigrant Center, both based in Massachusetts, along with other national legal aid groups as plaintiffs. The legal teams argue that the new policy hinders their ability to contact clients who may still have legal options to contest their detention or removal. They contend that standard methods for locating individuals, such as calling designated hotlines, now yield outdated or no information because those lines reference the same updated system.

The complaint cites violations of the Administrative Procedure Act, the First Amendment, and the Freedom of Information Act. The groups are asking a federal judge to invalidate the policy and seek a temporary suspension of its application while the case proceeds. DHS responded by stating that detainees have multiple ways to communicate with their legal representatives. The department added that the procedure applicable to an alien in irregular status with a final deportation order is expulsion, describing the process as straightforward.

Alvarez-Jones countered that making detainees harder to find facilitates federal efforts to remove individuals without allowing them to challenge the reasons for their arrest. She argued that the policy effectively makes it easier for ICE to act illegally by preventing families from locating their loved ones before they leave the country. The case will now be reviewed by a federal judge who must determine whether the agency's silent policy change complies with existing civil rights protections.