The Marshall Project, a nonprofit news organisation covering the US criminal justice system, filed a federal lawsuit on Tuesday, October 20, arguing that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is violating the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) by refusing to provide the names, dates of birth and detention locations of the people it arrests, Reason reported on Friday, October 23.

Source: Reason

According to the complaint, as quoted in Reason's report, ICE denied the FOIA requests on the ground that the “privacy interests of the individuals in the records… requested outweigh any minimal public interest disclosure of the information,” and that revealing it would “increase the risk of misuse, unwanted contact, harassment, stigma, or other privacy harms.”

Source: Reason — complaint quoted

The Department of Homeland Security says more than 1.1 million people — yaani 11 lakh (1.1 million) people — have been arrested by ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) combined since the immigration crackdown began in January 2025. That figure is DHS's own claim, reported by Reason; the names of most of those arrestees have been kept secret, the report said.

“We are seeking transparency and access to information that have existed within the criminal justice system for centuries,” said Jennifer Peter, editor in chief of The Marshall Project, in a statement linked in Reason's report. Concealing detainees' names “makes it far more difficult for their loved ones and attorneys to help them — and for organizations like The Marshall Project to shine a light on what's truly happening within immigration camps,” she said.

Source: The Marshall Project statement, via Reason

Reason noted a contrast the lawsuit is likely to press in court: DHS's own “Worst of the Worst” website publicly discloses names, photographs and other details while publicising the detention of selected immigration detainees with criminal records — even as the agency withholds the full arrest roster on privacy grounds.

For diaspora families, the issue in the case is practical as well as legal: when a detained person's name and location are not public, relatives and lawyers say they can struggle to find where that person is being held. The lawsuit has only just been filed and no court ruling has been made; ICE's formal response will come in the court proceedings.