Charlotte's Carolina Migrant Network sues ICE over tracking device records
A Charlotte-based immigrant advocacy group alleged in a lawsuit that Immigration and Customs Enforcement withheld documents on its tracking device policy last year.
It’s part of a pattern of the agency defying public records law, according to the lawsuit.
Last October, Carolina Migrant Network filed a Freedom of Information Act request for a memorandum reported by the Washington Post on ICE’s policy concerning ankle and wrist monitors. After ICE made no progress on handing over the records and declined to expedite the request, Carolina Migrant Network sued.
The Amica Center for Immigration Rights also requested the documents and joined last week’s federal lawsuit.
“Defendant has a pattern or practice of failing to conduct an adequate search for responsive records to FOIA requests within FOIA’s timing requirements,” the Jan. 14 complaint filed in North Carolina’s western district said.
Carolina Migrant Network and the Amica Center asked a judge to order ICE to search for and hand over any relevant records.
The Charlotte Observer contacted ICE for comment.
Bigger concerns around ankle monitors
The federal government has been putting ankle monitors on noncitizens indiscriminately, according to the lawsuit, to encourage them to self-deport.
The lawsuit pointed to a quote from an unnamed ICE spokesperson quoted by news media.
“Any illegal alien who is worried about having to wear an ankle monitor or any other GPS devices should accept the $1,000 stipend from the U.S. government and free flight home by self-deporting through the CBP Home App,” that spokesperson said in a statement.
Legally, monitoring is supposed to ensure that people facing the possibility of deportation make their court date and follow other rules. But that is not how it’s been used by ICE recently, according to the complaint.
It is instead a “different form of ICE custody over noncitizens, including physical restraint on individuals’ bodies and movements,” it said.
At a high fiscal cost, people are spending years wearing ankle monitors that can cause injuries and anguish, according to the complaint.
Pregnant women appear to be an exception to the wide-reaching ankle monitor policy, according to the suit, but still have to wear tracking devices on their wrists.
ICE and Carolina Migrant Network
ICE has been especially active in Charlotte since President Donald Trump returned to the White House last year and launched a mass deportation campaign across the country.
Charlotte is North Carolina’s biggest and most diverse city. It has a large Latino population, as well as a growing Asian population. It is also home to a Department of Homeland Security office that ICE works out of.
Since Trump’s first term, Carolina Migrant Network has been one of the most active immigrant advocacy groups in the city. When U.S. Border Patrol agents came to Charlotte for a five-day operation, the nonprofit informed the public where agents were through social media alerts. Its attorney has also represented people detained by ICE and Border Patrol.
Ryan Oehrli covers criminal justice in the Charlotte region for The Charlotte Observer. His work is produced with financial support from the nonprofit The Just Trust. The Observer maintains full editorial control of its journalism.