Another Agency May Have Lied to Court in a FOIA Case

May 13th, 2011
Another Agency May Have Lied to Court in a FOIA Case
Commentary by Jennifer Lynch

In an ongoing battle in the Southern District of New York about whether the government must disclose metadata when it releases documents under the Freedom of Information Act, it now appears Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) may have lied in a declaration it filed with the court. This comes on the heels of our earlier report about the FBI lying in a FOIA case in California and does not instill confidence that the government is acting honestly or ethically in FOIA litigation.

The case is National Day Laborer Organizing Network v. ICE, and it was brought by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and the Immigration Justice Clinic at Cardozo Law School. The plaintiffs are trying to get information on an ICE program called “Secure Communities” that conscripts state and local entities into enforcing federal immigration law by requiring the entities run the fingerprints of all individuals arrested (not convicted) through a federal database. …more