Tennessee Immigrant Rights Group Sues ICE Over Guidance to Local Police on Public Records Requests

A Tennessee immigrant rights group, a researcher and a national immigration group sued U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Wednesday, seeking records of the guidance the agency gives local police and sheriffs on whether to release information the public requests under state open-records laws.

The complaint, filed under the Freedom of Information Act in federal court in Nashville, says ICE "has established a system to advise" state and local law enforcement agencies on whether they can release certain records they keep, and told them "they may not unilaterally release certain records requested under state laws." The lawsuit alleges that instruction "circumvents state freedom of information laws and frustrates public oversight into ICE's operations."

The case is Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition v. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, No. 3:26-cv-01709, in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee. The plaintiffs are the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC), a Nashville-based nonprofit; Meghan Conley, a professor who writes about immigration policy; and the American Immigration Council. The Department of Homeland Security, ICE's parent agency, is also a defendant.

ICE's Instructions to Local Agencies

The complaint centers on agencies that work with ICE under 287(g) agreements, which deputize local officers to carry out certain immigration enforcement duties. It says ICE had signed 2,698 such agreements nationwide as of Oct. 21, including with 163 Tennessee agencies, among them the state Department of Safety and Homeland Security, whose agreement covers the Tennessee Highway Patrol.

According to the complaint, an email from ICE's 287(g) team on April 21 reminded agencies that information obtained or developed under the agreements, including documents the agencies created themselves, is under ICE's control, and told them to consult ICE about requests made under FOIA or "sunshine laws." The lawsuit alleges that an April 24 email from ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations told agencies to contact the "ERO FOIA team" before releasing "jointly owned" records, which it says ICE described as including contracts, invoices, emails and internal local documents containing ICE information. The complaint describes both emails "upon information and belief."

The complaint says later ICE guidance told agencies how to redact records such as budgets, contracts and aggregate data, and required them to notify ICE when a state's law does not allow the suggested redactions. It also says Putnam County denied state-law requests from TIRRC and Conley for records on people held on immigration grounds in its jail, asserting that a federal regulation "preempted" state public records law.

The Closed Request

The plaintiffs filed their FOIA request on Aug. 10, seeking local agencies' requests for ICE guidance and ICE's own guidance on disclosure under state law, covering Jan. 1, 2026, onward. On Sept. 2, the complaint says, ICE called the request not specific enough and asked the plaintiffs to limit it to a "closed six-month period" and to name the offices and records custodians it should search.

The plaintiffs narrowed the request on Sept. 9 to four ICE field offices, in New Orleans, Miami, Dallas and Houston, and to agencies with 287(g) agreements or detention contracts, but declined the six-month limit. ICE administratively closed the request on Sept. 13, and its legal office affirmed that decision on appeal on Oct. 16, according to the complaint. The lawsuit says no records have been released and ICE has not ruled on the plaintiffs' request for a fee waiver.

"The public deserves answers to these questions, and ICE shouldn't be making it harder to get them," Raul Pinto, deputy legal director for transparency at the American Immigration Council, said in a statement.

What the Lawsuit Seeks

The complaint brings three counts: failure to conduct a reasonable search, failure to make records promptly available and failure to grant a fee waiver. The plaintiffs ask the court to order ICE and DHS to process the request, search for and release non-exempt records, review any withholdings, waive fees and award attorneys' fees.

ICE has not yet filed a response in court, and the docket did not list an assigned judge as of Thursday afternoon.

Sources: Complaint, Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition v. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, No. 3:26-cv-01709 (M.D. Tenn., filed Oct. 28, 2026), posted by the American Immigration Council: https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/DE1-Complaint-mc-1.pdf ; Court docket: https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/75038802/1/tennessee-immigrant-and-refugee-rights-coalition-v-us-immigration-and/ ; American Immigration Council press release (Oct. 28, 2026): https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/press-release/new-lawsuit-seeks-information-about-ice-efforts-restrict-public-access-records/ . Cover photo: Fred D. Thompson U.S. Courthouse, Nashville, by Antony-22 via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.