In a federal courtroom showdown aimed at piercing the veil of government secrecy, the Democracy Forward Foundation sued the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Friday, accusing the agencies of stonewalling efforts to uncover Stephen Miller’s influence on immigration crackdowns during the Trump administration.
The Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit said DHS and ICE violated the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) by ignoring multiple requests for records, including communications with former White House aide Stephen Miller, a controversial figure in the Trump-era immigration strategy.
A Trail of Unanswered FOIA Requests
Filed in Washington federal court, the lawsuit outlines how Democracy Forward submitted four FOIA requests between February and May of this year. The group alleges both agencies have failed to produce a single document or provide any meaningful updates.
The earliest request, dated Feb. 3, sought emails from senior ICE officials — Caleb Vitello, Jon Feere, and Kenneth Genalo — referencing keywords such as “Chicago raids,” “New York raids,” “Boston raid,” “embed,” and “joint patrol.” The nonprofit also asked for correspondence between those ICE officials and external figures, including Miller, Tom Homan (the former border czar), and James McHenry, a former acting attorney general.
In response, ICE claimed on Feb. 13 that the scope of the request was overly broad and lacked specificity — a move the lawsuit characterizes as a bureaucratic delay tactic.
