When Your Visa Depends on Your Insta 

We’re representing the Campaign Legal Center in a new lawsuit over the Trump administration’s policies targeting free speech and voting access — two core parts of our democracy.

The lawsuit is seeking records on two federal policies: 

1. A federal program to review visa applicants’ and holders’ social media activity, with the potential to change people’s status depending on what they say.
2. A new rule limiting voter registration access at naturalization ceremonies.

The Trump administration failed to respond to FOIA requests for information about how these decisions are being made and what standards are being applied, leading us to sue.

“Policies that monitor people’s speech and restrict access to voter registration raise serious concerns about fairness and the potential for abuse,” our Executive Director Chioma Chukwu said. “That is particularly troubling from an administration already ramping up the use of surveillance tools and abusing its authorities in ways that blur the line between legitimate enforcement and politicization.”

The TSA is sharing passenger data with ICE. We need to know more.

This week, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained a woman and her 9-year-old child in the San Francisco International Airport, acting on a tip from the Transport Security Administration (TSA). They were both deported within days.

The TSA has been sharing air passenger data with ICE for a year — and has failed to respond to our public records requests for information about that agreement. The TSA-ICE data-sharing arrangement raises serious concerns about air passengers’ rights and safety, especially as ICE’s presence has increased at airports. 

Air travelers entrust the TSA with their sensitive personal information and deserve to know if and how their data is being wielded to advance the Trump administration’s immigration agenda. The public needs and deserves more information about how the TSA-ICE data-sharing program works, what data is being used, whether any safeguards exist, and how travelers have been impacted.

We filed suit in January, but the case is on hold because of the Department of Homeland Security shutdown. Once funding is restored, DHS will have two weeks to respond to our complaint.

We’re still fighting for the full Jack Smith report

This week, the Justice Department reportedly gave Congress a memo containing new details about President Donald Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents when he left office in January 2021. It revealed that some of those documents were related to Trump’s personal business interests, and others were so classified only six people had seen them.

We have been fighting for the release of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s full report on the investigation. The public needs to know more information about one of the biggest national security scandals in our country’s history.

We sued the Trump administration for the full report last year, after the Justice Department failed to respond to our FOIA request demanding its release. We’re going back to court in June.

Next on the docket

We’ll be in court on Monday arguing for the release of records related to the Justice Department’s review of the Epstein files. 

Attorney General Pam Bondi has been subpoenaed by Congress, after reporting revealed that the DOJ redacted and removed some files related to President Trump. We filed an emergency court order asking the court to force the DOJ and the FBI to release the records detailing how their agencies handled the investigation, including any training or instructions that were given to staff who were responsible for reviewing the files.

We need those files to be released before Bondi’s deposition so that Congress and the public have the information needed to hold her accountable. 

American Oversight in the news

• DHS attorney said agents in Los Angeles should have ‘started hitting’ protesters, emails show (Los Angeles Times)
• Congressmen demand probe in ICE killing of U.S. citizen Ruben Ray Martinez (Newsweek)
• He took my son’s life for nothing,’ says mother of man killed by immigration agent (PBS)
• DOJ says Kansas handed over Social Security numbers of voters. The state says that’s not true (The Beacon Kansas)

Other stories we’re following

• Trump’s move to send ICE to airports fails to break impasse or end long lines (Washington Post)
• Trump appeared to have business motive for keeping classified documents, Jack Smith finds (MS Now)
• Justice Dept. close to finalizing deal to hand over states’ voter roll data to Homeland Security, sources say (CBS News)
• US Trump Administration asks Supreme Court to halt DOGE inquiry (Bloomberg)
• ICE paid the salaries of this town’s entire police force (Wired)