Immigrants’ Rights Groups File FOIA Demanding Information on Trump Admin’s New Guidance Authorizing Immigration Arrests in Schools, Hospitals, and Other Protected Areas

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 22, 2025

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Immigrants’ Rights Groups File FOIA Demanding Information on Trump Admin’s New Guidance Authorizing Immigration Arrests in Schools, Hospitals, and Other Protected Areas

WASHINGTON – The National Immigration Law Center (NILC), along with seven community partners, is demanding that the Trump administration turn over documents, communications, and other information in the public interest related to the Department of Homeland Security’s reported adoption of new guidance allowing immigration agents to make arrests at previously designated “protected areas.” These include locations like churches, schools, and hospitals; critical services like food pantries and domestic violence shelters; and events like weddings and funerals.

NILC filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request today, along with CASA, the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA), the Services, Immigrant Rights & Education Network (SIREN), the Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC), We Are One America, the New York Immigration Coalition, and Make the Road New York.

“Trump’s cruel mass deportations plans are all about imposing fear, and this new guidance is further proof that they will disrupt all our lives, including in spaces that are sacred to all of us,” said Hilda Bonilla, legal fellow at the National Immigration Law Center. “No one should have to worry for their safety in their house of worship, at a doctor’s appointment, or while dropping off their kids at school. We cannot allow the Trump administration to carry out these harmful actions in secrecy.”

Protecting sensitive locations from immigration enforcement allows members of the community to access basic services without fear. For decades, administrations of both parties have recognized the importance of limiting enforcement in such locations.

On January 20, the Trump administration rescinded a Biden-era policy on protected areas, replacing it with an unreleased directive that reportedly gives Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents power to take enforcement actions in any of these spaces using so-called “common sense.”

Read the FOIA request filed today: https://www.nilc.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/2025-01.22-Sensitive-Locations-FOIA-Request.pdf 

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