ACLU of Colorado Joins Lawsuit Demanding Access to Documents on Trump’s Travel Ban

Colorado’s branch of the ACLU has joined a lawsuit seeking any government documents pertaining to possible on-the-ground implementations of President Donald Trump’s travel bans.

ACLU affiliates in Idaho, Oregon, Wyoming and Alaska are part of the Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, which is specifically going after U.S. Customs and Border Protection files.

“President Trump’s unconstitutional and un-American Muslim bans created chaos, confusion, and hardship across the country,” ACLU of Colorado legal director Mark Silverstein said in a statement. “As a public agency, CBP has an obligation to respond to open records requests and to disclose information to the public about the guidance and training that its agents receive.”

We joined ACLU affiliates around the country in filing 13 lawsuits to get to the bottom of Trump’s #MuslimBan. https://t.co/LdAwujbC9c pic.twitter.com/QRwmqHyErM
— ACLU of Colorado (@ACLUofColorado) April 12, 2017

The Denver Post reached out to U.S. Customs and Border Protection for comment, but the agency said it couldn’t speak about pending litigation.

The ACLU of Colorado, which announced the filing on Wednesday, said its action is part of 13 FOIA lawsuits filed by ACLU branches across the country. The group says each lawsuit seeks unique and local information regarding how CBP implemented Trump’s executive orders at specific airports and ports of entry in the midst of rapidly developing and sometimes conflicting government guidance.

The ACLU says it first sought the documents through FOIA requests submitted on Feb. 2 and says “since the government has failed to substantively respond, the ACLU is now suing.” The filing was made in federal court in Portland, Ore.

“CBP has a long history of ignoring its obligations under the federal Freedom of Information Act — a law that was enacted to ensure that Americans have timely access to information of pressing public concern,” Mitra Ebadolahi, border litigation project staff attorney with the ACLU of San Diego and Imperial Counties, said in a written statement.

Ebadolahi added: “The public has a right to know how federal immigration officials have handled the implementation of the Muslim bans, especially after multiple federal courts have blocked various aspects of these executive orders.”

Source: www.denverpost.com www.denverpost.com

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