The American Civil Liberties Union affiliates in Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine filed a lawsuit Tuesday seeking information about immigration enforcement in the three states, which all share borders with Canada.
The ACLU first requested the documents from the Department of Homeland Security and two of its arms, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement in September.
Eight months later, the agencies have failed to adequately respond to the request, the suit charges.
The suit outlines enforcement action that have raised concerns about civil liberties violations, such as immigration arrests at courthouses and Border Patrol checkpoints along roads a considerable distance from the international boundary.
However, Vermont ACLU Director James Lyall said part of the reason for requesting the records is to learn more about the agencies’ recent work.
Lyall said that the three federal government branches “operate with almost no transparency or oversight, ” meaning public records are often the only way to know what the agencies are doing.
Since President Donald Trump took office, there has been “harsh and unprecedented” immigration enforcement in the northern New England states, the complaint claims.
Nationwide, the number of people detained by immigration officials increased 38 percent over the previous year, the complaint states.
Across New England, immigration-related detentions increased 58 percent over the same period the previous year, which, the suit says, has left immigrant communities “crippled by fear and anxiety.”
Over the last year, ACLU-VT has raised concerns about Border Patrol agents questioning Greyhound bus passengers about their citizenship, and about the arrests of multiple members of the activist group Migrant Justice.
Lyall said the Vermont chapter partnered with groups from the other New England states so they could see what is happening throughout the area. Federal immigration jurisdictions cross the states’ borders, he noted.
“We wanted to get a better sense regionally not just limited to Vermont of what’s going on,” Lyall said.
ACLU groups have pursued similar requests in other areas around the country, including in Arizona, where Lyall was previously based. He said that the documents can be revealing about federal border and immigrations activities in communities.
