ACLU v. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, et al.

In November 2025, the ACLU and the ACLU of Northern California filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request seeking transparency about the Department of Homeland Security’s policies and practices related to people filming immigration and law enforcement activity.

The First Amendment protects the right to record law enforcement and federal agents conducting their work in public. But in the past year, agents have harassed journalists, bystanders, and advocates who have exercised that right and DHS has demanded that tech companies turn over the private information of people who record and publish videos of ICE agents.

When the government did not respond to our FOIA request, in June 2026 the ACLU, ACLU NorCal, and the MacArthur Justice Center sued DHS, Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.