Legal Reader: Lawsuit Says ICE Rigged its Own Software So That It’d Never Have to Release Immigrants

The New York Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, claiming ICE rigged its software to migrants behind bars longer than ordinarily allowed.

The class action, filed by the NYCLU alongside Bronx Defenders, centers on ICE’s Risk Classification Assessment system. The RCA software, writes Gizmodo, uses algorithms to determine when immigrants should be released.

But if the lawsuit’s to be believed, ICE has rigged its own software to always deny release requests.

Whether ICE is violating its own protocol or not, there’s no doubt the Trump administration has emboldened the agency to push the limits of its authority. In the past several years, ICE has enacted weeping measures to fuel its crackdown on migrants. According to Gizmodo, the agency has, among other things, purchased $30 million dollars’ worth of phone-hacking technology. It’s also used Facebook to set up dragnets, manipulated social media for sting operations, and pressured the Office of Refugee Resettlement to share information on unaccompanied, undocumented youth.

On top of that, ICE has repeatedly petitioned states for access to motorist databases and sought access to license plate reading systems. Gizmodo says the agency also wants to collect DNA from migrants and asylum-seekers who move through an estimated 200 holding facilities nationwide.

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