FOIAengine: Journalists Use FOIA to Reveal Immigration Arrests and Contracts
National and local journalists are using Freedom of Information Act requests to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to investigate the inner workings of the Trump Administration’s unprecedented mass deportation program.
According to PoliScio Analytics’ competitive-intelligence database FOIAengine, which tracks FOIA requests in as close to real-time as their availability allows, reporters submitted 80 requests to ICE during April seeking insights into the hot button immigration issues dominating today’s news.
These include Avelo Airlines’ contract with ICE to operate ongoing deportation flights, ICE’s apparent reliance on blacklists published by controversial advocacy organizations to identify individuals for deportation, the Social Security Administration’s agreement to provide ICE the last known addresses of immigrants to assist with immigration enforcement, and ICE contracts for everything from detention bed purchases to the use of a prison in El Salvador.
ICE operates one of Washington’s largest FOIA programs, receiving 59,300 requests in fiscal 2024. Its parent, the Department of Homeland Security, accounts for 61 percent of all federal FOIA requests, and ICE is DHS’s fourth largest component. ICE’s April FOIA log included 5,839 new FOIA requests.
Fully 94 percent of the April ICE requests are from or on behalf of individuals who have cases with ICE, meaning that case summaries are confidential and listed only as either “1st Party” or “3rd Party.” However, the remaining 369 requests, particularly those from the news media, provide useful insights into the public’s efforts to learn more about ICE activities.
One-third of the 80 April news media requests came from local television and print reporters across the country investigating arrests, deportations, detention centers, private contractors, and bodycam videos in their cities and regions.
States targeted in the requests included New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas, Wisconsin, Georgia, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Arizona, Pennsylvania, California, Washington, North Carolina, and Virginia.
- On April 21, Fernanda Silva of KSHB in Kansas City sought “all documents, reports, memoranda, and communications showing the per diem costs, total costs, and any cost analyses related to housing ICE detainees at the Chase County Detention Facility in Kansas.”
- On April 15, Evan Wen of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel sought “data that show arrests made by … ICE in Wisconsin from March 1 to March 31.”
- On April 1, Stephen Hobbs of The Sacramento Bee sought “records pertaining to number of people ICE arrested in California from January 20 through March 20.”
National media were active as well, including ABC News, CBS News, NBC News, Bloomberg News (3 requests), CNN, The Associated Press (2), Aviation Week, Business Insider, The New Republic, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal (2), The Washington Post, USA TODAY (6), and WIRED.
Deportation Flights
Six requests sought information about the Avelo Airlines deportation flight contract and related air operations matters.
In April, ICE contracted with Houston-based Avelo, reportedly for $150 million, to begin deportation flights on May 12. This prompted a “National Day of Action” with immigration advocates staging protests in Texas, New York, Florida, Oregon and California. News media requesters sought details and documentation about the agreement.
- On April 22, Christine Boynton of Aviation Week requested “a copy of the ICE contract recently awarded to Avelo Airlines (TEM Enterprises), under which it will begin operating charter deportation flights from Arizona on May 12.”
- On April 17, Graham Rapier of Business Insider requested “records pertaining to all contracts, agreements, statements of work, task orders, and related documents between … ICE and Avelo Airlines regarding ICE Air Operations, specifically for deportation or removal flights scheduled to begin in or around May 2025 and operated from ICE’s Arizona-based hub.”
- On April 21, Angelika Albaladejo of Capital & Main, a non-profit publication that reports from California, requested “records pertaining to minutes (i.e. transcription, summary, meeting notes) of the weekly teleconference calls conducted by Commercial Air Operations (CAO) and circulated to all Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) personnel between September 2020 and the latest date that this request is processed.”
ICE Agreements with Federal Agencies and Private Entities
Journalists also sought information about ICE’s agreements with other U.S. agencies and companies providing immigration-related services to the federal government.
- On April 11, Zach Stieber of The Epoch Times requested “records pertaining to copies of the agreement between ICE/DHS and the Social Security Administration that says SSA will provide to ICE the last known addresses of immigrants to assist with immigration enforcement, dated on or after February 1, 2025.”
- On April 4, Minho Kim of The New York Times sought “records pertaining to any interagency agreements between your agency and the Department of Government Efficiency (also known as DOGE, the U.S. Digital Service, or U.S. DOGE Service). This includes but is not limited to memoranda of understanding, memoranda of agreement, and other contracts or written agreements from January 20, 2025, to current.”
- On April 4, Laura Strickler of NBC News ask for “records pertaining to a copy of the contract between the US Department of Homeland Security and El Salvador for the use and imprisonment of Venezuelan gang members that were flown to El Salvador on the weekend of March 15, 2025, and housed in CECOT.”
- On April 8, Rachel Adams-Heard of Bloomberg News requested “records pertaining to Request for Proposals … seeking [an] additional allotment of detention beds nationwide.”
Canary Mission and Betar
Several journalists sought evidence that ICE, in identifying possible deportees, has used information posted on public websites by two controversial advocacy groups, Canary Mission and Betar.
Canary Mission’s website states that it “documents individuals and organizations that promote hatred of the USA, Israel and Jews on North American college campuses and beyond.” Betar’s website states that its mission is to “empower Jews to stand strong, speak out, and defend their heritage and Israel against all threats.” Betar admits that it has “provided thousands of names of jihadis to the Trump administration of visitors to America who support Hamas.”
The New York Times reported that a lawyer representing one of the seven “deportable” people posted on Canary Mission’s “Uncovering Foreign Nationals” web page, called the group a “predator in the ecosystem that we’re living in right now. … Critics say the lists amount to doxxing, the publishing of private information about someone with malicious intent.”
- On April 2, Deirdre Fernandes of the Boston Globe requested “all ICE communications between November 20 and April 9 that contain “Canary Mission” … or “Middle East Forum”… or “Accuracy in Media”,… and all ICE communications to and from @canarymission.org, or @betarus.org, or @5wpr.com.”
- On April 8, Caroline Haskins of MuckRock News requested any emails between four different HSI offices and anyone with the email domain “@canarymission.org”, any emails between the Special Agent in Charge at this HSI office and anyone with the email domain “@canarymission.org”, any emails sent by or to the Resident in Charge at this HSI office containing the phrase “Canary Mission”, and any emails sent by or to the Special Agent in Charge at this HSI office containing the phrase “Canary Mission” dated on or after January 1, 2025.”
- On April 24, Nick Penzenstadler of USA TODAY requested “all submissions to the ICE tip line (https://www.ice.gov/webform/ice-tip-form) with the following terms from 1/1/2023 through 4/28/2025: Betar US, Betar Zionist Organization, Inc., (b)(6);(b)(7)(c), Canary Mission, CanaryMission.org.”
Student Visas
Student visa revocations prompted FOIA requests about developments at several universities, including the University of Michigan, the University of Cincinnati, Xavier University, Miami University in Ohio, California State University Northridge, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, Massachusetts Universities, and New Mexico State University. SEVIS is ICE’s web-based Student and Exchange Visitor Information System.
- On April 8, Emily Piper-Vallillo of WBUR in Boston requested “records pertaining to spreadsheets of all visa terminations through SEVIS at Massachusetts institutions of higher education since January 20, 2025. Information should include the type of visa, the date the visa was terminated, the reason for the termination, whether the visa holder was a student, a recent graduate, or an exchange visitor, and the university or college the visa holder was affiliated with, the name of the visa holder.”
- On April 15, 2025, Damien Willis of Organ Mountain News, an online news source for southern New Mexico, requested “records pertaining to the termination of SEVIS records and visa revocations for international students enrolled at New Mexico State University (NMSU) in Las Cruces, New Mexico, from January 1, 2024, through the present.”
FOIAengine access now is available for all professional members of Investigative Reporters and Editors, a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the quality of journalism. IRE is the world’s oldest and largest association of investigative journalists. Following the federal government’s shutdown of FOIAonline.gov last year, FOIAengine is the only source for the most comprehensive, fully searchable archive of FOIA requests across dozens of federal departments and agencies. FOIAengine has more robust functionality and searching capabilities, and standardizes data from different agencies to make it easier to work with. PoliScio Analytics is proud to be partnering with IRE to provide this valuable content to investigative reporters worldwide.
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Randy E. Miller, co-creator of FOIAengine, is a Washington lawyer, publisher, and former government official. He has developed several online information products and was a partner at Hogan Lovells, where he founded the firm’s Brussels office and represented clients on international regulatory matters. Miller also has served as a White House trade lawyer, Senior Legal Adviser to the U.S. Mission to the World Trade Organization, policy director to Senator Bob Dole, and adjunct professor at Georgetown University. He is a graduate of Yale and Georgetown Law. FOIAengine is a product of PoliScio Analytics (PoliScio.com), a venture specializing in U.S. political and governmental research, co-founded by Miller and Washington journalist John A. Jenkins. Learn more about FOIAengine here. Sign up here to become a trial user of FOIAengine.
Write to Randy E. Miller at randy@poliscio.com.