Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti filed an official complaint against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Monday, alleging the two entities have failed to produce documents regarding the release of immigrant detainees into Tennessee.
Skrmetti’s complaint, filed in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, raises claims under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
In December, as previously reported by The Tennessee Star, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee announced his office was notified that ICE facilities in New Orleans were planning on transporting an unknown number of single adult detainees to Tennessee to await court proceedings.
Earlier this year, Skrmetti submitted a series of FOIA Requests seeking documents related to the planned transport and release into Tennessee of noncitizen detainees held in ICE detention facilities, however, the agencies have yet to fulfill his requests.
“Tennessee has since sought and failed to obtain information about ICE’s detainee release plan, including by making and renewing FOIA requests for Defendants’ records and third party communications with immigration-rights groups and local leaders,” Skrmetti’s complaint reads. “Records obtained directly from Metro Nashville confirm that Defendants possess records responsive to Tennessee’s requests. FOIA required Defendants to determine within 20 days whether they would comply with such a request, with an opportunity to seek a brief extension only in exceptional circumstances.”
“Yet, to date, approximately seven months since Tennessee’s first FOIA request, Defendants have not produced a single document, nor have they claimed the withholding of any document pursuant to any statutory FOIA exemption. Tennessee’s requests for the important immigration-related information it seeks have been effectively ignored,” the complaint adds.
Skrmetti went on to argue the agencies’ refusal to comply with his requests left him “no choice but to file suit so that the people of Tennessee can learn the scope of detainee releases and evaluate the resources necessary to respond.”
“Tennesseans have a right to know what the federal government is doing in Tennessee. ICE’s rejection of transparency is all the more troubling because of the humanitarian crisis resulting from ICE’s misdirected priorities,” Skrmetti said in a statement. “No federal official is exempt from public accountability.”
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “Bus Ride” by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
FYI
On the last week of Sept 2023 I saw 3 of these large unmarked busses and a large unmarked passenger Van turn off of I40 onto Old Hickory South then turn North on Hwy 70.
More arriving every day!