Privacy Rights Advocates Challenge Trump-Vance Administration’s Secret Tracking of People Exercising their First Amendment Rights
SEATTLE – Hagens Berman has joined national legal non-profit Democracy Forward in filing a lawsuit challenging the Trump-Vance administration’s alleged unlawful surveillance of those who peacefully observe and document federal immigration enforcement. The lawsuit states that in the face of dramatically increased immigration enforcement, millions of Americans have lawfully exercised their First Amendment right to protest. In response, the lawsuit alleges that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) adopted a secret Protester Surveillance Policy enabling its agents to first collect records on Americans engaging in First Amendment activity and maintain those records in DHS systems, where they can be used to retaliate against those Americans. This violates citizens’ rights under the Privacy Act and their basic Constitutional rights.
