Immigration

Fiona Harrigan | 12.22.2023 9:00 AM

In November 2022, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) accidentally posted the names, birthdates, nationalities, and detention locations of over 6,000 migrants to the agency's website. Forty-nine affected migrants sued Acting ICE Director Patrick J. Lechleitner and other government officials over the data leak—but last week, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia dismissed their suit.

The 49 migrants came to the U.S. to seek asylum, with many of them fleeing "gang violence, government retaliation, and persecution on the basis of protected grounds," noted last week's opinion. All of them were eventually detained by ICE. Then, in late November 2022, an ICE employee allegedly uploaded the personal information of 6,252 migrants—some of whom were in ICE custody at the time, and some who once were—to the agency's website, available for anyone to view or download. It was on the site for about five hours.

"We know the 20 columns of personal data about each victim were downloaded six times from [internet service providers] that ICE refuses to disclose to Congress or to the victims of the breach," said Curtis Lee Morrison, partner and attorney at Morrison Urena and the lead attorney representing the asylum seeker plaintiffs, in a........

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