Joining amicus brief in support of Deportation Data Project litigation for ICE data

[Deportation Data Updates]

Dear all,

Please see the below request from attorneys at Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP asking for journalists and academics to consider joining a “friend of the court” amicus brief in a Freedom of Information Act case seeking timely updates to the ICE data. The complaint, filed today, is attached.

If you are interested in joining this effort either in your individual capacity or on behalf of your organization, please reach out to Kelly M. Dermody (kder...@lchb.com) and Celena H. Nelson (chne...@lchb.com).  

Thanks so much for considering this,

Amber, David, and Graeme

Deportation Data Project

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Dear Colleagues and Friends,

We are attorneys at a plaintiff-side law firm in San Francisco. We are reaching out to you to see if you would be interested in joining a “friend of court” amicus brief supporting a request for the court to order DHS and ICE to provide critical data regarding ICE encounters with the public, detainer requests, arrests, detentions, and removals. This project would be free of charge and be limited to a one-time filing with the court of those journalists and academics who can claim to benefit from access to such data in their work.

 

We are not the firm litigating the case against DHS and ICE but would be filing our amicus brief in support of the lawsuit brought by Berkeley Professor David K. Hausman (as representative of the Deportation Data Project) against ICE and DHS. The lawsuit our brief would attempt to help is being brought under the Freedom of Information Act and seeks data regarding ICE enforcement activity. Specifically, the Plaintiff there seeks five spreadsheets that contain records of every ICE encounter, detainer request, arrest, detention, and removal.

 

As you likely are aware, these spreadsheets have been the source of virtually all data on ICE activities since January 2025. Professor Hausman and the Deportation Data Project previously brought suit against ICE to seek this data and successfully obtained six releases of the relevant spreadsheets starting in March 2025. The DDP subsequently published this information online in a usable form for the broader public. The data has been widely used by academics, journalists, and the general public.

This lawsuit would seek not only retroactive data on enforcement actions but also an order from the court requiring ICE to continually produce this data.

If you have used this data in your academic work, other research, or journalism, we hope you might consider supporting this effort.  Would you be willing to add your name to the amicus brief and provide us with information regarding how this data has benefited your work? It would be particularly helpful to know how regular, timely, continuing productions of the data would be important to you.

 

Please let us know if you are interested.

In solidarity and with gratitude,

 

Kelly M. Dermody and Celena H. Nelson