FOIA Footnotes
A rundown of government accountability efforts across the U.S. immigration system
Editor’s Note: We’re going to experiment with some sub-series within the broader Maxwell Commons newsletter—especially as we start incorporating perspectives from other contributors across the U.S. immigration system.
With that said, I present the first FOIA Footnotes: A regular rundown of government accountability efforts related to immigration enforcement.
A Transparent Homeland
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Acting Director Todd Lyons spoke to Congressional committees today, so let’s talk about transparency at the Department of Homeland Security.
With the Trump regime's commitment to mass deportations, we can all agree that accountability is critical...right?
Recent plans shared by the White House call for a jarring increase to the DHS budget—despite ongoing efforts to gut DHS agencies like the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). For the fiscal year starting October 1, 2025, Trump proposed an extra $44 billion to the DHS budget to help facilitate a surge in immigration enforcement.
The budget increase makes sense when you consider the costs involved in this mass deportation plan. Trump has called for ICE to hire 20,000 new employees—essentially doubling the agency’s size. Not to mention the contracts paid to private prisons and local/state agencies to house ICE detainees in their facilities. Or the budget airlines and other contractors facilitating actual deportations through the ‘ICE Air’ program.
And there’s even more going on across DHS right now where we, the public, deserve clarity. So let’s look at some efforts to hold a light to this cavern of immigration enforcement money—because this is all just a business like Amazon Prime. Right Todd?
The Rundown
Here’s our first rundown of ongoing work to hold DHS and its component agencies—including ICE, Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), and Customs and Border Protection (CBP)—accountable:
1️⃣ Nonprofit newsroom Block Club Chicago is suing ICE (and DHS) for violating the Freedom of Information Act.
For context, Block Club filed a FOIA request for arrest records from local ICE raids in January. After ICE continued to withhold this information beyond the mandated FOIA response times, Block Club is now suing to make this data public.
Over the next several weeks, ICE ignored questions about its actions across the country, including demands from members of Congress. In Chicago, the agency blew off most media inquiries, including more than a dozen from Block Club.
2️⃣ ProPublica continues to shine light on the massive changes at federal agencies involved in immigration processes.
Today: a story on how the Office of Refugee Resettlement (part of the Department of Health & Human Services) has shifted priorities toward immigration enforcement.
The agency’s welfare mission appears to be undergoing a stark transformation as President Donald Trump seeks to ramp up deportation numbers in his second term (…).They say that one of the clearest indications of that shift is the scale of the checks that immigration agents are conducting using information provided by the resettlement agency to target sponsors and children for deportation.
3️⃣ Austin Kocher, PhD and the Relevant Research team continue to share data-driven analysis of ICE operations across the country. This week, they've released a new method for reporting on ICE's facility-level detention data.
4️⃣ Bloomberg Businessweek published a new story in its Deportation Inc. series this week, "Addicted to ICE", that's worth a read. It looks at the economic incentives that cause rural towns to welcome immigration enforcement and detention in their communities.
5️⃣ Finally (and selfishly): I recently filed a FOIA request with USCIS, asking for documentation on the agency's recent social media policies and personnel. I'm hoping we'll learn how recent posts on LinkedIn, Instagram, etc. might reflect broader shifts in the agency's mission and/or service priorities.
ICYMI, I shared a post here last week (“Welcome to Pleasantville”) with context on the FOIA request, a look at recent data on USCIS Instagram posts, and a brief history of the agency’s use of social media for vetting and monitoring of individuals.
More to come
Are there any other recent updates or new projects worth highlighting here?
Let me know if I’ve missed anything!