This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
The ACLU of Utah, along with affiliates in northern California and Hawaii, has filed a lawsuit demanding documents related to the implementation of President Donald Trump's foreign travel ban of people from seven Muslim-majority nations.
Both the initial ban ordered in January and a second one in March, which included just six countries, have been stayed by multiple courts.
Iraq was dropped from the list that includes Iran, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan and Libya.
The lawsuit, filed late last week in San Francisco's 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, is one of 13 similar actions filed by ACLU affiliates under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) as part of a coordinated nationwide campaign to obtain information about how the executive orders were implemented, according to a statement from the ACLU.
The lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security seeks records from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection San Francisco field office, which has jurisdiction over Honolulu and Kona International Airports, San Francisco International Airport and Salt Lake International Airport.
The civil liberties organization had sought the records through FOIA in early February. But no response was forthcoming from the government, said John Meija, ACLU of Utah legal director.
The ACLU is suing to make public how the travel bans were implemented at various airports around the country. Of interest is the process by which some people were detained and turned back, Meija said.
"The executive order was advertised and carried out as a Muslim ban," he said. "When you have obtained legal permission to travel in this country, from our perspective, you can't take away that right. It's a violation of due process."
Each of the 13 lawsuits filed last week seeks information regarding how U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents implemented the executive orders at specific airports and ports of entry in the midst of rapidly developing — and sometimes conflicting — government guidance, according to the ACLU.
"We have seen a swell of concern and support for refugees from the people of Utah, who turned out in droves to welcome those few refugee families who managed to arrive at Salt Lake International Airport in the immediate aftermath of the chaos caused by President Trump's executive orders," Mejia said. "There may have been objectionable plans to detain individuals at our airport and there may have been people detained and harassed that we are unaware of, but because Customs and Border Protection hasn't answered our requests, we have no way to know."
The Trump administration has 30 days from the time of filing to answer the lawsuit.