Seeking Records about DHS’s Renewed Mass Influx Declaration and Deputization of State and Local Law Enforcement as Immigration Officers
On March 25, 2025, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) Secretary renewed the agency’s declaration that “an actual or imminent mass influx” of noncitizens is arriving along the entire southern border of the United States for another 180 days. This declaration exploits an obscure, emergency provision in immigration law that allows the federal government to deputize state and local law enforcement officers as immigration officers for the duration of the influx.
The DHS Secretary declared an initial 90-day mass influx on the southern border a few days into the Trump Administration. Based on this declaration, it executed an agreement with the Texas National Guard to deputize national guardsmen as immigration officers under the supervision and direction of U.S. Customs & Border Protection (“CBP”). Border Patrol, the law enforcement agency within CBP charged with enforcement at U.S. borders, has since deputized hundreds of guardsmen to investigate and arrest noncitizens for immigration violations and perform other unspecified immigration functions along the southern border. The Secretary’s renewed mass influx declaration allows these deputization to continue in Texas and elsewhere.
But there is no mass influx at the southern border. Border crossings are the lowest in years: Border Patrol encountered only 11,017 people at the southern border in March 2025—75,000 fewer than in December 2024, 178,000 fewer than in March 2024, and 211,00 fewer than in March 2022.
On May 13, the Council and the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan (“ACLU-MI”) filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) with DHS, CBP, and U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) for records considered by the DHS Secretary when renewing the mass influx declaration; agreements executed by ICE, CBP, and DHS with state and local law enforcement agencies pursuant to this declaration; communications between these federal agencies and state and local law enforcement agencies about the negotiation and implementation of these agreements; and training materials for local law enforcement officers deputized as immigration officers under these agreements. The Council and ACLU-MI sought expedited processing of their request.
Access to these records is crucial for the public to understand the Trump Administration’s novel use of long dormant provisions of U.S. immigration law and its unprecedented use of state and local law enforcement officers in immigration enforcement.
