The Radical Reading Room

Groups that provide legal services to immigrants filed a federal lawsuit in Boston on Wednesday, Oct. 28, seeking to stop a new Trump administration policy that keeps the locations of detainees with final deportation orders out of public view. The complaint asks a judge to block the change, which the groups say makes it difficult or sometimes impossible for immigration lawyers to locate clients.

The lawsuit challenges U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s removal of those detainees’ locations from its Online Detainee Locator System and instructions to staff not to disclose their whereabouts. The policy was introduced last month and described as a way to expedite deportations. As of last month, it affected more than 16,000 of nearly 69,000 people in ICE custody.

Greater Boston Legal Services executive director Jacquelynne Bowman, one of four plaintiffs, said the change leaves people at risk of serious consequences without legal help. The complaint says lawyers have been unable to find clients since the change took effect. Lawyers and relatives have used the locator system since 2010 to track detainees as they move among facilities.

ICE and its parent, the Department of Homeland Security, did not immediately respond to a request for comment and have not publicly confirmed the change. The agencies have said they are prioritizing people with final removal orders and denied that detainees are being disappeared, saying they remain able to make phone calls. They have also said they face a historic number of court injunctions blocking their efforts.