ACLU lauds judge's ruling on memo

The American Civil Liberties Union Monday praised a judge's ruling forcing the government to disclose why it wants local police to enforce immigration laws. The legal rationale is contained in a secret memo, the ACLU said. The ACLU filed a Freedom of Information Act request last year seeking the document. The ACLU and other groups that objected to the new immigration policy said that the government's insistence on keeping its legal rationale secret has made it difficult to evaluate the new policy or advise immigrants about its effects. In his ruling, Judge Lewis Kaplan called the government's attempts to keep the policy secret unpersuasive, and ordered the Justice Department to disclose the memo by Oct. 12. However, the judge refused to order the release of other material sought in the suit. The FOIA suit was filed in 2002 after Attorney General John Ashcroft adopted a new policy allowing state and local police to detain immigrants believed to be in violation of non-criminal provisions of the federal immigration laws, overruling past policy. [more ]