ICE Lifts Redactions on Records Related to Migrant Deaths in Custody

In American Oversight’s fight for records related to the deaths of people held in immigration detention, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has lifted redactions on nearly 80 pages of public documents.

The records were re-released in a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security, after American Oversight had challenged the redactions as inappropriate in court filings. In a legal briefing filed early this month, ICE indicated that it was no longer maintaining many of the redactions the agency had previously defended. ICE’s new production, the result of consistent pressure from American Oversight, is an important victory for transparency and the public’s understanding of conditions and procedures in the immigration detention system.

In November 2021, American Oversight sued DHS and ICE over seven different Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests seeking records related to migrant deaths in custody that occurred from 2018 through 2021. While ICE released some reports in response, hundreds of pages of redactions remained, including some covering entire pages.

The records released last week, which included detainee death reviews and health care and security compliance analyses, contained details that had been previously obscured. ICE lifted the redactions American Oversight had challenged on all of the re-released pages, maintaining their arguments for partial redactions under FOIA Exemption 7(E) — which protects law enforcement techniques and procedures — on only two separate pages.

American Oversight’s litigation has resulted in ICE lifting redactions on nearly 200 pages of public records without a court order.

Documents previously uncovered by American Oversight through litigation revealed troubling details and alarming failures in care leading up to the deaths of several migrants in 2018. More information about American Oversight’s investigation into conditions in migrant detention centers can be found here.