ACLU files lawsuit against CBP over travel ban records

The American Civil Liberties Union of San Diego and Imperial counties filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the U.S. Customs and Border Protection after the agency failed to respond to different Freedom of Information Act requests regarding records associated with the local implementation of the president’s travel ban.

On Feb. 2, the ACLU submitted a FOIA request to the CBP San Diego office to release all documentation produced concerning how the San Diego office implemented President Donald Trump’s executive order signed Jan. 27.

The order temporarily halted refugee admission from seven predominantly Muslim countries to the United States, including Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

“We wanted to get information on the specific implementation of the executive order on the ground,” said Mitra Ebadolahi, border litigation project staff attorney for ACLU San Diego and Imperial counties.

“We made a request to learn more about how the agency was operating at the San Diego International Airport.”

The signing of the travel ban from President Trump was followed by an array of issues in different airports and ports of entry as part of confusion on how to properly implement the ban, as immigration officials allegedly denied entry to green card holders coming from the list of seven countries.

Ebadolahi said the ACLU heard different reports that after federal judges lifted the travel ban in court, some CBP sectors allegedly kept denying travelers from the seven identified countries.