Archive

SAN FRANCISCO – Today the ACLU Foundation of Northern California (ACLU-NC) filed a complaint with the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on behalf of Andreas Gal who, on November 29, 2018, was subjected to interrogation and retaliation by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) for questioning the unwarranted search of his electronic devices. T... Read More

SAN FRANCISCO — The American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California today released records revealing that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has gained access to an expansive surveillance database to target immigrants. The documents also reveal that local law enforcement agencies are aiding ICE in the surveillance efforts by sharing residents’ location information with ICE agents, some... Read More

UPDATE: The Union City Police Department informed the ACLU that it does not operate license plate cameras and has no license plate detection data to share with ICE. Union City provided a recent sharing report and screenshots showing that ICE is not listed as a sharing partner and that Union City has not contributed “detections” data to the LEARN database. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcemen... Read More

NEW YORK — The American Civil Liberties Union, Sierra Club, ACLU of Texas, and ACLU of Northern California today filed a lawsuit challenging President Trump’s emergency powers declaration to secure funds to build a wall along the southern border. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the Sierra Club and the Southern Border Communities Coalition and was filed in the Northern District of California. ... Read More

SAN FRANCISCO — A settlement has been reached in J.I. v. United States, a lawsuit filed by the ACLU of Northern California on behalf of a woman who was sexually assaulted by a U.S. border patrol agent when she was 17 years old. In July of 2016, two sisters, then 19 and 17, lost their way while traveling to the US from Guatemala, and encountered U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers ... Read More

After more than a month of threats, a government shutdown, and bipartisan action by Congress, President Trump has finally declared a national emergency to spend billions of taxpayer dollars on his border wall obsession. In response, the ACLU will file a lawsuit early next week challenging this blatantly illegal executive action. Let’s get something straight upfront: There is no emergency. Membe... Read More

NEW YORK — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell today stated that President Trump will declare a national emergency. Anthony Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, issued the following statement in response: President Trump’s hankering for a wall at the southern border cannot be justified by calling a national emergency. This would be a clear abuse of presidentia... Read More

SAN DIEGO — Please attribute the following statement to Norma Chavez-Peterson, executive director of the ACLU of San Diego & Imperial Counties, speaking on behalf of the three California ACLU affiliates, with regards to Governor Gavin Newsom’s reassignment of National Guard troops from the state’s southern border: Read More

SEATTLE — A group of Amazon shareholders announced today that they have filed a shareholder resolution echoing widespread calls for Amazon to stop sales of facial recognition to the government. The shareholder resolution, which asks Amazon’s board of directors to prohibit sales of facial recognition technology to government agencies unless the board concludes that the technology does not pose actu... Read More

NEW YORK — A coalition of over 85 racial justice, faith, and civil, human, and immigrants’ rights groups today sent letters to Microsoft, Amazon, and Google demanding the companies commit not to sell face surveillance technology to the government.  The coalition makes it clear to each company that a decision to provide face surveillance technology to the government threatens the safety of commu... Read More