The Columbia University Knight First Amendment Institute on Monday filed a lawsuit [complaint, PDF] in the US District Court for the District of Columbia against the Trump administration seeking release of data on how often US citizens and others had electronic devices searched at border crossings. The lawsuit [press release], filed under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) [text], is aimed at requiring the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to reveal when it has searched US citizens and other travelers. The Knight Institute filed a FOIA request, and DHS has failed to respond up to this point. The lawsuit notes that news reports have claimed border officials seem to have targeted Muslims for electronic searches, and argues that searches have increased dramatically since President Donald Trump took office.

Trump’s immigration policies have been contentious since the beginning of his administration. In February DHS released [JURIST report] two memoranda to the department directing agency employees to implement Trump’s immigration executive orders. The orders require federal agencies to hire 15,000 more border patrol and immigration officers. Taken as a whole, Trump’s immigration policies have marked a departure [JURIST op-ed] from the policies of other US Presidents since WWII.