Within hours of taking office, President Trump took several sweeping, executive actions on immigration. In an executive order entitled “Securing Our Borders,” he directed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to detain noncitizens “to the maximum extent authorized by law” and realign policies for paroling noncitizens out of immigration detention. In a proclamation entitled “Guaranteeing the States Protection Against Invasion,” he also suspended the entry of noncitizens at the U.S.-Mexico border on the pretext that irregular migration across the border amounted to an “invasion.” He further ordered the Secretary of Homeland Security to “repel, repatriate, and remove” any noncitizen who crossed the border.
ICE has not published policies implementing these executive actions despite having a duty to do so under the Freedom of Information Act and a memo issued by the Department of Homeland Security’s Chief FOIA Officer. But despite the lack of publicly available information about ICE’s implementation of these policies, the agency is executing these actions on the ground: According to ICE detention data, the agency detained 41.35% more people in June 2025 than in December 2024 but released 65.22% fewer people on monetary bond, 97.57% fewer people on their own recognizance, 85.15% fewer people under orders of supervision, and 99.21% fewer people on parole.
On April 29, 2025, the Council filed a FOIA request with ICE to investigate its implementation of the “Securing Our Borders” Executive Order and “Guaranteeing the States Protection Against Invasion” Presidential Proclamation. The FOIA request seeks all memoranda, musters, guidance, and other similar records implementing these executive actions.
On September 9, 2025, the Council joined a FOIA lawsuit initiated by the National Immigration Project to sue ICE and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia for not making these records promptly available in response to the Council’s request as required by FOIA. Goodwin Proctor is representing the Council and the National Immigration Project in this FOIA lawsuit.
These records will allow the Council to educate the public about changes to ICE detention and removal practices due to these actions and assess whether anecdotal reports of changes arise from these actions.
