Nearly two migrants affected by last year’s data leak that compromised the safety of thousands of asylum-seekers have filed a lawsuit against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) acting director Tae Johnson and other top officials, alleging that the November 2022 breach and public posting of private information could place them in harm if they are returned to their home countries.
Federal immigration officials acknowledged this risk, last month releasing from detention nearly 3,000 migrants hurt by the data breach. Plaintiffs seek class-action status to protect more than 6,000 migrants from deportation and ensure other critical relief, the lawsuit said.
RELATED STORY: ICE frees nearly 3,000 detained asylum-seekers hurt by major personal information breach
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Migrants “are asking for a one-year stay of removal from the country, re-adjudication of their cases, accommodation, and $15,000 in compensatory and punitive damages,” Border Report said. “The lawsuit also requests reasonable costs and attorneys’ fees under the Equal Access to Justice Act.” While thousands affected by the breach have been released from ICE custody, most of the 22 plaintiffs from the lawsuit are still in detention, documents said.
ICE put thousands in danger when a supposedly routine website update around the Thanksgiving break resulted in the leaking of names, birthdates, detention locations, and other protected information. ICE claimed it was an accident, but officials then again endangered migrants, “inadvertently” informing Cuba that dozens of Cuban nationals slated for deportation had been among those whose information was leaked, The Los Angeles Times reported.
Asylum-seekers named in the lawsuit said they’d “fled to the U.S. because they believed the U.S. government would protect them from harm in their countries of origin. Their faith has been shattered, and their safety is still at risk. They will have to look over their shoulders for the rest of their lives.” The lawsuit states that a number of immigration judges have, in fact, already “downplayed and dismissed” risks related to the data breach in issuing decisions against a number of affected asylum-seekers.
Attorney General Merrick Garland is named in the lawsuit, since immigration judges fall under the Justice Department. Other officials named in the lawsuit include Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, and an unknown “John Doe” who uploaded the data in November. The lawsuit said that the federal government has not disclosed the person’s name, despite Johnson stating in December that “[t]ransparency remains at the forefront of our mission.”
ICE’s public responses to the unprecedented data breach indicate that it knows it majorly fucked up, intentional or not. The agency’s initial response was to say that it would not deport anyone “until they have a chance to raise the issue in immigration court,” The Los Angeles Times reported. Officials subsequently said that they would help “deportees who wish to return to the U.S. and seek asylum,” the report continued. Officials would later release nearly 3,000 affected migrants. That’s significant, considering ICE has unnecessarily detained sick children in the past.
But while some of these government officials are clearly in clean-up mode following the confidential data breach, others continue their nefarious actions. “In one instance, the Central Arizona Florence Correctional Center opened mail addressed to a detainee who was trying to participate in this case, then taped it shut, and dropped it back in the mail marked ‘RTS’ and circling ‘No longer detained,’ when the prospective client is still detained,” the lawsuit states.
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