美国公民自由联盟(American Civil Liberties Union)正争分夺秒地阻止移民和海关执法局(ICE)删除拘留记录中的无数文件，包括特朗普政府第一年的记录。
在接受采访时新闻周刊，美国公民自由联盟高级幕僚律师尤尼斯·乔(Eunice Cho)表示，公民自由联盟将提交一份全面的《信息自由法案》(Freedom of Information Act)(FOIA)，要求保护和获取因国家档案和记录管理局最近的一项裁决而可能很快被删除的信息自由联盟记录。
2019年12月11日，美国档案管理员批准了移民和海关执法局的一项请求，该请求最初是在2015年10月2日由奥巴马政府提出的，要求删除过去几年的拘留记录。
Cho说，需要删除的记录包括与被拘留者死亡有关的文件、性侵犯指控和对被监禁者的虐待指控，包括那些被单独监禁的人。
她警告称，拘留设施的每周监控报告可能已经面临删除，包括唐纳德·特朗普总统执政初期的报告。
Cho说，许多面临删除的记录都是通过ICE的免费热线投诉拘留条件的指控。
“热线记录可能会记录大量投诉...关于各种监禁条件，包括医疗保健和性侵犯的投诉，”赵说。
尽管许多可能被列入黑名单的记录已经有好几年了，但周说，“从特朗普政府开始创建的记录，[现在也]可能面临被销毁的巨大危险。”
美国公民自由联盟(ACLU)将于周二上午在FOIA提出申请，该组织寻求与拘留相关的ICE记录，并计划在仅保留3至7年的短时间后将其删除。
美国公民自由联盟认为，这些文件应该得到保护，以帮助洲际交易所在未来几年承担责任。美国公民自由联盟(ACLU)还警告说，这一删除可能会对现在和以前的移民归化局被拘留者产生影响，这些人希望就联邦拘留期间的虐待指控对该局和美国政府采取法律行动。
“我们真的认为这些信息对支持司法公正很重要，被拘留的人应该有权就他们所遭受的任何虐待为他们的权利辩护，”赵说。"销毁这些证据将使它变得更具挑战性。"
美国公民自由联盟(ACLU)还表示，最近的事态发展不会在更糟糕的时候出现，移民维权人士警告称，移民局去年12月宣布了新的设施标准，这将降低监管要求，削弱对被拘留者的保护。
此外，移民和海关执法局继续面临对其被拘留者待遇和移民执法策略的审查。
2015年10月14日，一名男子在加州洛杉矶被移民和海关执法局拘留。移民和海关执法局已获准删除一系列拘留记录。
近年来，洲际交易所在全国范围内针对无证移民的广泛行动遭到了广泛的反对。与此同时，该机构还对其对待被拘留者的总体方式感到愤怒，包括其对待那些参与绝食抗议移民拘留设施条件的人的方式。
在最近的一份报告中，国土安全部自己的监察长称，移民和海关执法局的监督系统未能“确保对拘留条件进行充分监督或系统性改善，一些缺陷多年来一直未得到解决。”
允许该机构删除其记录，周，只会让这些缺陷继续存在下去。
她说，最终，洲际交易所被允许删除大量数据，这在联邦层面上“说明了更广泛的透明度问题”。
“为了有效的监督...无论从短期还是长期来看，这些记录都需要向公众公开，以评估政府在保护在押人员方面是否真的做了自己的工作。
ACLU RACES TO STOP ICE FROM DELETING YEARS OF RECORDS, INCLUDING DATA ON DETAINEE DEATHS AND SEXUAL ASSAULT REPORTS
The American Civil Liberties Union is racing against the clock to stop the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency from erasing countless documents on detention records, including records from the first year of the Trump administration.
In an interview with Newsweek, ACLU Senior Staff Attorney Eunice Cho said the civil liberties union would be filing a sweeping Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to preserve and obtain ICE records that could soon be erased thanks to a recent ruling from the National Archives and Records Administration.
On December 11, 2019, the Archivist of the United States approved a request from ICE that was initially proposed on October 2, 2015, under the Obama administration, to delete detention records from past years.
Among the records that stand to be deleted, Cho said, are documents related to the deaths of detainees, allegations of sexual assault and allegations of abuse of detainees in ICE custody, including from those held in solitary confinement.
Weekly monitoring reports of detention facilities, she warned, could already face erasure, including those from President Donald Trump's earliest days in office.
Many of the records that face deletion, Cho said, are allegations that have been made through ICE's toll-free hotline for complaints about detention conditions.
"The hotline records are likely to capture a wide pool of complaints...regarding all sorts of conditions of confinement, including medical care and including sexual assault complaints," Cho said.
While many of the records that could be up on the chopping block are years old, Cho said, "records that have been created from, for example, the beginning of the Trump administration, are [also] now, perhaps, in great danger of being destroyed."
The ACLU is set to file its FOIA request on Tuesday morning, with the organization seeking detention-related ICE records scheduled to be deleted after short retention periods of only three to seven years.
Those documents, the ACLU has argued, should be protected to help hold ICE accountable in the years to come. The ACLU has also warned of the impact that the erasure could have on present and former ICE detainees who wish to take legal action against the agency and the U.S. government over the alleged mistreatment while under federal custody.
"We really believe that this information is important to support justice in general and that people who have been detained should have the right to vindicate their rights in terms of any abuse they have suffered," Cho said. "The destruction of this evidence will make it much more challenging."
The ACLU has also said the recent development could not come at a worse time, with ICE having announced new facility standards last December that immigration advocates warn would lower oversight requirements and weaken protections for detainees.
It also comes as ICE continues to face scrutiny over its treatment of detainees and immigration enforcement tactics.
A man is detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), agents early on October 14, 2015 in Los Angeles, California. ICE has been given the green light to move ahead with deleting a range of detention records.
In recent years, ICE has faced widespread backlash over its widespread operations targeting undocumented immigrants across the country. Meanwhile, the agency has also drawn ire over its treatment of detainees generally, including its treatment of those who have participated in hunger strikes protesting conditions at immigration detention facilities.
In a recent report, the Department of Homeland Security's own Officer of Inspector General asserted that ICE's oversight system had failed to "ensure adequate oversight or systemic improvements in detention conditions, with some deficiencies remaining unaddressed for years."
Allowing the agency to delete its records, Cho, will only allow those deficiencies to persevere unchecked.
Ultimately, she said, ICE being allowed to delete swaths of data "speaks to broader transparency issues" at the federal level.
"In order to actually have effective oversight...both in the short-term and long-term, these records need to be available to the public in order to assess whether or not the government has really done its job in terms of protecting those in their custody," Cho said.
