http://cptv.vo.llnwd.net/o2/ypmwebcontent/Chion/do%20120316%20CAP%20lawsuit.mp3
The Connecticut chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association and the American Immigration Council have filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. They want DHS to release records about an enormous, though little understood immigration enforcement program.
Cody Wofsy says there’s not a lot known about the Criminal Alien Program, known as CAP.
"What we do know about CAP is that ICE agents are involved in identifying people all over the country in state prisons and jails as well as federal facilities and placing them into deportation proceedings. We don’t know exactly where they are. We don’t know how many there are."
Wofsy is a student intern with the Jerome Frank Legal Services Organization at Yale Law School which co-represents the plaintiffs. He says initial studies raise questions as to whether CAP is sweeping up all sorts of people for deportation, including those who have been arrested but never convicted of any crime. The plaintiffs want greater transparency.
"The best data that we have suggests that it led to over a million people being put in deportation proceedings over the last five years or so. It is enormous. But the public really doesn’t know anything about it."
DHS did not respond to WNPR’s request for an interview.
Last November, the plaintiffs sent a Freedom of Information request to DHS for all records related to CAP. DHS officials replied that a request for all records was too broad. They asked the plaintiffs to narrow it down.
Earlier this month, the plaintiffs filed suit in US District Court in Connecticut. A response from the government is expected in the coming weeks.
