The ACLU of Michigan is suing the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) over what it calls a “legal loophole” that lets those agencies keep immigration detention records “completely secret.”
The lawsuit focuses on people who are detained for immigration violations in county jails. ICE pays local governments to hold such people in many situations.
The ACLU says the problem arises when they try to get detention records from those jails. ICE has ordered the jails to deny those records requests, and redirect them to ICE. But when ICE is asked for the records, the agency says it doesn’t have them in their possession, according to the federal lawsuit the ACLU filed Wednesday.
“What's happening is that records related to ICE detainees, when they're housed in county jails, are effectively being placed in a black box,” said Michigan ACLU staff attorney Ramis Wadood.
“This is impeding our ability to investigate civil rights abuses. This is impeding immigrant legal service providers’ ability to effectively represent clients. And it's impeding the public's ability to truly understand how detention centers are being run.”
Wadood said this has been an ongoing problem through multiple presidential administrations, but that with President Donald Trump pledging to ramp up immigration enforcement, resolving it has become a more urgent matter.
“You're going to have immigrants who are picked up by ICE or the Border Patrol, and thrown into detention with little to no due process,” Wadood said. “And once we find out about it, if this regulation still stands in the way, we won't be able to investigate and help out.”
Wadood said the ACLU of Michigan is taking the lead in the case because it’s been fighting this battle within the Michigan court system for years. But he believes the issue, and the lawsuit’s outcome, will be relevant nationwide.
“This is not only going to help us in Michigan obtain essential records from county jails,” Wadood said. “This should hopefully help any person, any organization around the country, who wants to obtain records from their local county jail that holds immigrants on behalf of ICE.”
The Department of Homeland Security, when contacted about the lawsuit, said via email that it does not comment on pending litigation.
Copyright 2025 Michigan Public
